Misael Acosta Solís and the conservationism in Ecuador, 1926-1953

Abstract

Between 1936 and 1953 the geobotanist Misael Acosta Solís (1910-1994) leaded an intense divulgation campaign to promote the institutionalization of conservationism and a change of attitudes in the relation with nature in Ecuador. He mainly used economic arguments, but also ecological, aesthetical, moral, and patriotic ones. Around 1952 he succeeded in introducing the conservationist discourse in the academy, scientific circles, agribusiness people and the State; he founded and directed various institutions: a private farm for experiments, the first Forest Department in Ecuador, between others. He used his scientific authority and take advantage of Ecuador’s situation in 1948 —a country involved in “development”— to integrate the conservationist discourse in the State. Some of his ideas and practices, seen from today, appear as non-environmentalists, but the biggest contradiction shows up when it is confirmed that in Ecuador (as in the world) that period of institutionalization of conservationism coincides with the intensification of landscapes transformation.