Urban-System Evolution on the Frontier of the Ecuadorian Amazon Author(s): Roy Ryder and Lawrence A.

Brown Source: Geographical Review, Vol. 90, No. 4, (Oct., 2000), pp. 511-535 Published by: American Geographical Society Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3250782 Accessed: 11/06/2008 14:25
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URBAN-SYSTEMEVOLUTIONON THE FRONTIER OF THE ECUADORIANAMAZON

A. BROWN ROY RYDERand LAWRENCE
Likethe North Americanfrontier,Ecuador's Amazonianmarginhas advancedin periodic waves.But the impetus has been extremelyvaried,interlacingperiods of socioecoRecentevents in easternEcuadorconfirm that urbannomic crisis with times of prosperity. ization is a fundamental component of frontier development in South America. The urbanizationprocess is not a sign, however,of regional economic strength.Capitalgains at the peripheryare transferred to the nation'score region. Eventhe largerboom towns display little functional specialization; they are, instead,precariouslydependent on employment in the public-servicesector.Nonetheless,urban centersin the Ecuadorian Amazon continue to to rural areas of and more educated individuals.Keyand drain surrounding younger grow words: Amazon,boomtowns,Ecuador, frontierregions,regionaldevelopment.
ABSTRACT.

1he six provinces of the Ecuadorian Amazon-the Oriente-account for 48 percent of the nation's territory but contain only 4 percent of the population (INEC 1991).When oil was discovered there in the late 196os, new access roads brought an end to the isolation of the region and facilitated large-scale spontaneous colonization of rain forest-dominated terrain. In the prepetroleum era colonists had been restricted mainly to the piedmont or the banks of navigable rivers, but the new waves of pioneers rapidly thrust the agricultural frontier deep into the northeastern Oriente (Figure i). Boom towns have become a fundamental feature of the frontier's landscape. To demonstrate this, we first review the literature on urban systems at the South American frontier, then present detailed analyses of Puyo and Nueva Loja, the two largest boom towns in the Ecuadorian Amazon. Our emphasis is on factors that have influenced their development: rural-urban migration, local primacy, and spatial interaction with other towns in the Oriente. We include references to the findings of other researchers of frontier development and compare the development of pioneer towns in the Ecuadorian Amazon with those in the coastal plain-the Costa. Our final comments focus on an examination of current negative and positive perceptions of the potential resilience of the Oriente and its urban network.
URBANIZATION AT THE SOUTH AMERICAN FRONTIER

The ambiguous term frontier can be applied to either a relatively static border zone between neighboring states or a dynamic peripheral region in the throes of absorption into the national and global economies. John Friedmann recognizes two kinds of dynamic frontiers: those characterized by settlement and those dominated by extraction (1996).
DR. RYDERis an associateprofessorof geographyat the Universityof South Alabama,Mobile, ff Alabama36688. DR. BROWN is a professorof geographyat Ohio State University,Columbus, Ohio
43210-1017.

TheGeographical Review90 (4): 511-535, October2000 Copyright ? 2001 by the AmericanGeographical Societyof NewYork

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Cities and Regions of Ecuador

Esmeraldas

ariColombia

Manabi

Imbabura arra Nueva Loja Hi bPichinch a Pichincha Sucumbios Santo Domingo . e _ M io uito Shushufindi Coca 'Coca Napen Tena Ambato. Tungurahua Pastaza Bolivar Puo Sarayacu Cotopaxi Orellana

abie fon y Quevedo. Los Rios

i Babahoyo Babahoyo Riobamba

Guayas d Guayaquil

Cra Curarayo

Chimborazo Montalvo . Macas Canar Morona-Santiago 5 ? Cuenca. Azuay Mendez

so

so

100 Miles

City Province Gualaquiza

El Oro

Loja

LoZamora Nambija Zamora-Chinchipe

Peru

Natural

Regions Costa Sierra OriOnente

FIG.1-Cities and regions of Ecuador.(Cartography by Sang-I Lee, Department of Geography, Ohio StateUniversity)

Settlement frontiers are colonized by farmers who migrate from the established heartland of a nation to thinly populated margins in search of land. Ensuing pioneer rural communities are accompanied by remarkable boom towns that articulate the frontier economy with the rest of the nation and the world at large. As in the frontier characterized by Frederick Jackson Turner,the wilderness is tamed and the landscape evolves through successive stages of economic development (Turner 1920). Historical evidence reveals that settlement frontiers do not necessarily advance at a uniform rate. Expansion of the North American settlement frontier in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries was sensitive to long-wave Krondatiev economic episodes. Prosperous periods associated with a push to the west alternated with stagnation of the frontier during economic depressions (Earle 1992; Berry 1996). Extractive frontiers do not involve permanent rural settlement but are penetrated primarily to extract minerals, fuel, or timber for export to industrial regions. As in Alaska, the Canadian North, or the Australian interior, it is assumed that extractive frontiers will remain sparsely populated (Elazar 1996). In the absence of rural settlers, towns established for resource-extraction purposes eventually decline and become ghost towns once the resource is exhausted. Frontier regions in South America, both settlement and extractive, share the distinctively urban personality of that continent. Amazonia may be considered an

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"urbanized jungle" (Becker 1996, 91) because the majority (55.2 percent in 1991) of

Brazil's Amazonianinhabitantsarenot small,ruralproducersbut live in towns and Amazon participatein urbanactivities.Casestudiesof boom towns in the Brazilian that their economic is uneven and on external forces show,however, growth depends
and changes in transportation (Lisansky 1990; Godfrey 1992; J. T. Roberts 1992). In

addition,employmentis mobile, and it blurs any interfacebetween urbanand rural areas.David Clearydescribeshow one-quarterof the households in the Brazilian boom town of Rio Branco still gain better than half of their income in the rural zone through extractiveactivities,agricultural work, or sales of family-farmproducts (1993). Male residents of Xinguara in southeastern Amazonia leave home to

workin the lumber or mining industriesin the dry season and find employment in local construction projectsor commerce during the rainy season (Godfrey1990). Boom towns in the EcuadorianAmazon are a recent phenomenon, but one with old economic problems.Although state funds have trickled down to expand employmentin public-serviceagencies,jobs still arescarceand incomes low. Urban inhabitantsscramblefor bureaucratic and servicepositions in local governmentor fallback on one of a multitudeof small-scalecommercialenterprises.Field surveys
of establishments in both Ecuador (Brown and Ryder 1999; Ryder and Brown 2000)

and Brazil(Volbeda1986)reveala proliferationof modest restaurants, bars,corner stores,and retailoutlets.Commercialestablishmentsoutnumberall othersin Amazonian boom towns regardlessof differencesin city size, city age, or the nature of the local economy (oil extraction,mining, lumber,ranching,pioneer agriculture).
This finding is consistent with research by Cleary (1993) and by Brian Godfrey (1990),

both of whom emphasizethe importanceof small-scalecommerce in towns of the Brazilian Amazon.The informalsector is clearlyas importantin Amazonianboom towns as it is in the capitalcity of Quito, situatedin the Sierra(Teltscher1993),the in the Costa (Placenciaand Vasquez1986),and other Latin port city of Guayaquil,
American cities (Bromley 1982; Safa 1986; Portes and Johns 1989; Portes, Castells, and Benton 1989; Lawson and Klak 1990).

Boom towns link frontier regions to more establishedparts of their nations. Theyalso routinelydisplaylittle interactionwith eachother and do not often diffuse prosperityto the hinterlands(Lithwick,Gradus,and Lithwick1996). Even when frontier growth centers are planned and equipped with industrial or mineralextraction facilities, they may have limited success in spreading economic development. Ciudad Guayana, in Venezuela, has become a relatively dynamic industrial center,but it absorbsmigrants from the surrounding region, and there is little evidence of economic progressbeyond the city itself (Hollier 1988;Brown the plannedmining complex of Carajas, and Lawson 1989).Similarly, with its associatedspontaneousboom town of Parauapebas, has generatedconsiderableexport revenuefor Brazilbut remainsan exotic enclavewith negligibletrickle-downeffects for the Amazonian state of Para.Most of the miners employed in Carajascome from outside Para,and companycafeteriasand town supermarketsare almost entirelysuppliedwith food and merchandisefrom out-of-statesources(Roberts1995).

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The disappointingperformanceof planned frontiergrowth centershas convinced former proponents to rejecttheir value as stimulants for developmentin frontier regions. Friedmannnow considersgrowth poles to be more parasiticthan generative (1992).

That neither planned nor spontaneous urban centers in frontierregions energizetheirsurroundingruralcommunitiesis not surprising.Rurallife in LatinAmerica is predominantlyone of drudgery,in which household members work long hours on the farm. The viability of small-scalepioneer agriculturalenterprisesis diminishedby problemsof insufficientcapitaland credit,insecureland tenure,poor soils, unreliableroads,lack of transportation,inadequatetechnicalassistance,low and cropdamagecausedby pestsand plagues. pricesfor food cropsin urbanmarkets, Livingconditions in the LatinAmericancountrysideare inferiorto those in urban habitats,which offer better housing, amenities,and health and educationalfacilities. Even the immigrant inhabitantsof urban squatter neighborhoods compare their situation favorablywith their prior existence in the rural areas they abandoned (B. Roberts1992).LatinAmericanfrontiertowns thereforeattractmigrants from hinterlandsand can display remarkable ratesof population growth. John Browderand Brian Godfreyview the BrazilianAmazon as a peripheral sociospatial continuum with a wide range of coexisting populist and corporatist
socioeconomic groups (1990, 1997). Associated urban systems vary so much in

linkagesthat they cannot be explainedby morphology,function, and extraregional central place theory,the Turnerthesis of frontier development,structuralframeworks, or any other single theoreticalmodel. Populistsegments of the frontierare characterized by small farmers,independent miners, petty merchants,and others engaged in labor-intensiveactivity.They are distinguished by four benchmark stages of urban development. Initial resource extraction is served by rudimentary expeditionary resource settlements. Subsequent immigration of pioneer peasant farmers is accompanied by the development of local service centers. Selectedservicecentersattainthe privilegedstatusof municipalityand benefitfrom the influx of public-serviceemployment,services,and utilities. Many municipalities eventuallyyield marketareato new servicecentersat the expandingfrontier.In the absenceof productive-usually manufacturing-specializationthey diminish in political/economicvitality and become relict municipalities. Corporatistsegments of the Amazonianfrontierare dominatedby public and private capitalizedenterprises,including cattle ranching,agribusiness,large-scale mining,wood processing,and hydropower projects.Initialplannedcompanytowns are well equipped and designed to cater for managementand technicalstaff. Surrounding satellite shanty towns spring up spontaneously to house construction workers,domestics,and other low-income residents.The bicephaliccomplex may eventuallyattainmunicipalitystatus,but depletion of the local resourcebase leads to closureof the companytown and collapseof the symbiotic shantysettlement.A small residualsettlement may remain,with minor governmentservicesand petty marketactivities.Thus, unlike the populist model, the corporatefrontierdoes not

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evolvetowardincreasingly in stages complex forms of urbanizationbut degenerates from planned settlementsto residualdepressednuclei. Browderand Godfreyoutline other broad principles of urbanizationin Amazonia. Urban growth in the Amazon is generallydisarticulatedfrom surrounding development.Linkedto the nationaland globaleconomies,largerboom agricultural towns exhibit growth that exceeds local levels of economic progress.Inconsistent statepolicies havepromotedboth populist and corporatistfrontierswith contrasting urban patterns,but whateverthe development strategy,the survival of individualboom towns is greatlyenhancedif they areableto achievemunicipalitystatus and expand employmentin the servicesector.Keylocations in transportationnetworksalso areparticularly favorableto growthand may lead to the developmentof regionalsecondarycities or even regionalmetropolitancenters. The generalspatialevolution of towns in the Ecuadorian Amazonhas been analyzed by LawrenceBrown and Rodrigo Sierra(1994) and by Brown and his coauthors(1992,1994,1996), who observesimilarities betweenemergingrealityin Ecuador and universalcore-peripherymodels of frontier development, including Edward RichardMorrill,and PeterGould'smodel sequenceof transportationdevelTaaffe, opment (1963).They also find context-dependenttheoreticalframeworks,including EdwardMuller'sthree-stage classification-pioneer, specialized, transitional periphery-of nineteenth-centuryNorth Americanpioneer regions to be relevant (1977).Thus Coca (PuertoFranciscode Orellana),Nueva Loja,and Shushufindiare elements of a specializedperiphery,whereas Puyo is considered to be developing into a majorgatewayand the dominant centerof a transitionalperiphery. The prinwith models to economic funccipal discrepancy context-dependent corresponds tions:Ecuadorian pioneertownshaveexceptionally largeservicesectorsand relatively weak representationof wholesalingand financialactivities.Brown explainsvariations in the developmentof EcuadorianAmazon towns by identifying distinctive combinations of endogenous and exogenous forces (1999).
DEVELOPMENT FACTORS IN THE EVOLUTION OF PUYO

Puyo,the largesttown in the EcuadorianAmazon, originatedas a Dominican mission in 1899.Pioneer farmersbegan to arrivein the 1930s,when a North American oil company,LeonardExploration,began to build a road from the Sierratown of to Puyo. Dominican priests constructeda church and two schools in 1932, Barnos and an armybase was establishedin 1935. By 1938Puyo'spopulation was 1,073,and it was already the largestsettlementin the provinceof Napo-Pastaza(Hurtado1988). The 1941invasionby Perumade the Ecuadoreangovernmentpainfullyawareof the need to reduce the isolation of its vulnerableAmazonian provinces.Shell Oil, which replacedLeonardExplorationin 1939,continued constructionof the BaniosPuyo road until it reachedan airstripbearingthe company'sname in 1942.It took five additionalyears,however,to complete the final 6-mile road link to Puyo. Shell suspendedits unsuccessfulsearchfor oil in 1949,but Puyo continuedto attractcolonists, including refugeesfrom a major earthquakein Sierratowns of Pelileo and

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Ambato. Leonard Exploration returned to the region in 1957 and initiated an extension of the Bafios-Puyo road to Tena. This road was completed in 1963 and stimulated the development of Teniente Ortiz, Santa Clara, and other new communities. No oil was discovered, however, in the region surrounding Puyo. In 1959 Napo-Pastaza was subdivided into two provinces. Tena continued to administer Napo, and Puyo was declared capital of Pastaza. Significant colonization occurred in 1964-1965, after Ecuador approved an agrarian reform and colonization law. Haciendas in the Sierra readily released dependent serfs, modernized production, became increasingly livestock oriented, and functioned with a reduced pool of temporary hired workers. Peasants lost access to hacienda pasture and fuelwood sources and were relegated to small, infertile land parcels that became even smaller when they were fragmented by inheritance (Brown 1991). Rapid population growth and decreased access to land forced many peasants to seek scarce employment in urban areas, cultivate high-altitude moorlands (Gondard 1986), or colonize coastal and Amazonian rain forests (Lowder 1982). In the mid-1960s Puyo was a "busy town," with schools, shops, and an agricultural extension service (Hegen 1966).Another wave of migrants came from drought-stricken Loja Province in 1969-1970 (Aspiazu 1982). The rural population of Pastaza continued to increase by 2.14 percent per year between 1974and 1982,but this growth was overshadowed by the province's urban population, which grew at an annual rate of 8.54 percent (Urriola 1988). Urbanization was stimulated by state revenues from the 1970S oil boom that were used to expand educational, medical, legal, technical, and administrative facilities in the province. It was in the nation's interest to consolidate control of the sparsely populated Oriente, encourage colonization, promote socioeconomic development, and reduce the risk of further loss of oil-rich territory to neighboring Amazonian countries. Ecuador always protested the 1942 Protocol of Rio de Janeiro, which favored Peru and reduced Ecuador's Amazonian territory to a fraction of its former size. Significant border skirmishes broke out in the southern Oriente in 1981 and early 1995, but, in response to international pressure, Ecuador and Peru finally adopted a peace proposal in 1998 that may bring political stability to the southern Oriente. The population of Puyo in 1990 was 14,438 (INEC 1991). In Browder-Godfrey terminology, the town has become the most successful "municipality" of the piedmont settlement frontier, and it has a more sedate and orderly appearance than do other settlements in the Oriente (Figures 2 and 3). The central streets are paved, and the majority of the buildings are solidly constructed of cement blocks. The town boasts a modern marketplace, a new bus terminal, and excellent recreational sports facilities, including a new soccer stadium. Deficiencies in the supply of water and the disposal of sewage continue, but electricity is available at all times, and the streets are kept reasonably free of litter. Puyo has attained an air of maturity. Change in Third World regions results from the interaction of endogenouslocal-characteristics with exogenous forces related to world economic circumstances, national conditions, and state policies (Brown 1991,1999;Brown and others 1994). Puyo's complex evolution has been strongly influenced by exogenous factors

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_-*
e s

?-

tr -

-,~~~~~~~~~~-

FIG. 2-By July1993Puyo,the leadingtown in the Ecuadorian Amazon,had attainedan air of matu rity,with paved streetsand a wide range of urban services.(Photographby Roy Ryder)

FIG. 3-The weekend fair at Puyo fills downtown streetswith people and produce. (Photographby Roy Ryder,July1993)

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FIG.4-Despite somewhatchaoticand unattractive downtown streetscapes, Nueva Loja,the second largest settlement in the EcuadorianAmazon, was well on the way to overcoming its shanty-town appearanceby July1993.(Photographby Roy Ryder)

FIG. 5-The main street of Nueva Loja is characterized by solid buildings and bustling commerce. (Photographby Roy Ryder,July1993)

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operating at both internationaland national levels. Relevantinternationalforces include the early intervention of foreign missionaries,the 1941invasion by Peru, and various stagesof oil explorationrelatedto the growingworld demand for fossil fuels.An influentialnationalpolicy was the 1964law that facilitatedcolonization as an escape valve for peasantswho had been marginalizedby the modernization of with the 1949earthquake in Ambato largefarmsin the Costaand the Sierra. Together and the 1969-1970 droughtin LojaProvince,this legislationstimulatedpioneer agriculturein Puyo.Briefperiods of prosperityin agriculturewere relatedto fleeting favorableprices for tea, naranjillafruit (Solanumquitoense),and sugarcanein national and internationalmarkets.A particularlyrelevantoutside factorwas Puyo's selection as provincial capital in 1959,which was followed by local expansion of state administrativefacilitiesusing revenues derived from the country's 1970s oil
boom.

Endogenous factors in the growth of Puyo are more difficult to specify. The indigenous population,the targetof earlymissionaryactivity,has not participated significantlyin the town'sdevelopment.The surroundingregion is poorly endowed with natural resources,and local soils manifest limited potential for agriculture. Forestreservesare so depletedthat local artisansuse wood from the northeastern Oriente.Nonetheless,it was the unique geological structureof the centralOriente that stimulatedexplorationfor oil and led to construction of the road from Banios to Puyo. No oil was discovered,but the perceivedpotential for oil exploitationwas clearlya significantendogenousfactorin the earlydevelopmentof Puyo.The dominant contemporaryendogenouscharacteristic of town is probablyits geographical location in the centerof the Oriente,with a comparatively short accessroute to the Sierra.The road that winds its way up the PastazaCanyonis very fragile,but it is a vital link between Puyo and dynamic marketsin Ambato.
DEVELOPMENT FACTORS IN THE EVOLUTION OF NUEVA LOJA

The boom town of Nueva Lojaowes its origins to discoveriesof oil in the northeastern Oriente in 1967.The first buildings were erected in the late 196os by pioneers

fromLojaProvincewho belongedto an agricultural cooperativecalled"NuevaLoja." The chosen site was beside an oil camp named "LagoAgrio," and most local people still referto their town by that name. A study of initial colonization in the region describesNueva Lojaas a rudimentary"squattersettlement of about 100 houses"
(Bromley 1972, 289). By 1971,however, Texaco-Gulf had completed the road from

Quito to Nueva Loja,and the town had become the point of origin of the most frontierin the EcuadorianAmazon (Figures4 and 5). dynamicagricultural Many colonists were unskilledor semiskilledconstructionworkersfor TexacoGulf and associatedcontractingcompanies before they claimed and clearedroadside land. Some came to the region with the specific objectiveof establishingpioneer farms (Barral1983).Oil extractionand spontaneousagriculturalcolonization occurred simultaneously.Ray Bromley estimated that at least 1,400 new roadside
farms had been established by the end of 1971 (1972). Most of the migrants were

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poor and of ruralorigin. They came from Pichinchaand other neighboringSierra provinces but also included peasants who were fleeing economic depression in Manabi Province and drought in Loja Province.Anne Lise Pietri estimated that 150,000people abandonedLojaProvincebetween 1962 and 1982 to seek better fortune elsewhere,especiallyin Quito and the EcuadorianAmazon (1986). Bromley emphasizedthat the flood of colonists was motivated neither by high agricultural
potential nor a romantic pioneering spirit (1972,
1981).

The influx was largely the

consequence of difficultyin obtaining land or lucrativeemployment in the highlands or the coastalplain.

In 1982, census results showed that Nueva Loja (7,237 inhabitants) had a larger population than Tena(5,457),the capitalof Napo Province(INEC1982). Communi-

cationsbetweenNuevaLoja,in northernNapo, and Tena,in the extremesouthwest, have alwaysbeen difficult.As a result,booming Nueva Lojawas declaredcapitalof a new province, Sucumbios,createdfrom the northern flank of Napo in 1989.By residentsto become the secthe followingyearNueva Lojahad accumulated13,165 ond largestsettlementin the EcuadorianAmazon. Only Puyo,with its population
of 14,438, had more inhabitants
(INEC 1991).

It is clearthat the evolution of Nueva Loja,like that of Puyo,has been strongly influenced by exogenous factors.At the internationallevel, the world demand for oil and the constructionof the Quito-Nueva Lojaroad by Texaco-Gulf gaveorigin to the town and made it accessibleto the rest of Ecuador.Subsequentnational factors includethe government's policy of permittingspontaneouscolonizationaround Nueva Lojain orderto convertthe regioninto a live frontier-and to reducethe risk of invasion by Colombia.At the same time, this policy was intended to alleviate peasants'demand for land in the Sierraand to provide a haven for refugeesfrom the drought in LojaProvince. The most significantendogenousfactorinvolvedin the economic development of Nueva Lojaand its surroundingregionhas been the presenceof oil. Indeed,if oil had not been discoveredthere in 1967,the northeasternOriente might still be an Initial exploration and road construction in the late 196os inaccessibleperiphery. and early 1970Screated abundant full- and part-time unskilled jobs for colonists. This labor force rose to a peak of about 5,000 between 1969and 1971(Bromley 1972).In recentyears,however,the impact of the oil industry on employment has diminished. EkkehardBuchhofer estimated that approximately 1,000 unskilled laborerscontinued to work for small firms that performed subcontracted construction work, maintenance, and repair operations for the national oil corporation (1988). These low-income employees were frequently hired on a temporary basis. BlandineGravelinfound that only a handful of the 300 employeesin the Nueva Loja oil camp were from the town itself (1987).The vast majority of skilledoil workersstill travelby air from Quito, live in an oil camp fenced off from the town, work nine-dayshifts,and returnhome to the Sierrabetweenwork assignments. Evenfood suppliesare flown in to the oil camp from Quito (Wesche1989). Like the Carajasmining camp in Brazil,oil-extractionfacilities at Nueva Lojaare

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enclosed in an enclavethat has a restrictedeconomic impact on the neighboring town and its hinterland.
LOCAL PRIMACY AND RURAL-URBAN MIGRATION: PUYO AND PASTAZA

Scarce employment in Puyo is aggravated by immigration from the surrounding region. City planners voice deep concern about economic stagnation in rural Pastaza, where few incentives exist for agriculture (Urriola 1988). Technical assistance from state agronomists is inadequate, and productivity is diminished by persistent pests

and disease that attackcrops and livestock.At times, crop failure is on a massive
scale. A plague devastated naranjilla crops in the 196os and 1970s, causing colonists

to migrate from the rural community of Fatima to Puyo or Tena.Many farmers encounter difficultiesin taking their produce to urban marketsbecause of poor Eventhose who have propertiesclose to roads are discouragedby low accessibility. food prices that do not compensate for the high costs of transportation.As observedin the northeasternOriente,crops are increasinglybeing replacedwith pasturefor cattle,which aremore easilytakento marketand requireless labor (Hiraoka and Yamamoto1980).The demise of cropping and the surge in cattle ranchingare reflected in the distribution of loans approved by Puyo's branch of the Banco
Nacional de Fomento (National Development Bank), the principal source of credit

for Pastaza's Fundswereinvestedin tea plantationsin the early1970s, agriculturalists.

but production was severely reduced after 1976 as a consequence of falling interna-

tional market prices and increasinglabor costs (Aspiazu 1982). Since then, bank funding for cultivation has been negligible. James Hicks argues that the Banco
Nacional de Fomento has given preferential treatment to ranchers in the Ecuadorian Amazon (1990). Provincial planners argue, however, that diminished financing of cropping is not bank policy but a sign that farmers no longer wish to risk committing themselves to a loan for crops. Oriente farmers are not alone in their decision to replace crops with pasture. Owners of large Sierra farms also have turned to livestock to produce meat and dairy products for the growing urban market, to reduce labor costs, to free up capital for investment in urban real estate and industrial projects (Vos 1988), and to lower the risk of state expropriation by converting a large proportion of the farm to pasture (Brown 1991). Pastaza's economically active population employed in agriculture fell from 4,752 (59.7 percent) in 1974 to 3,993 (39.2 percent) in 1982. The province's rural population grew at a sluggish 2.14 percent in the same period, and its share of the total population decreased from 77 percent to 67 percent (Urriola 1988). Migration from Pastaza's countryside to Puyo is not caused by modernization of production or land consolidation. Colonists in the Oriente are not forced to leave their land by cattle ranchers and land speculators, as has been reported in the Brazilian Amazon (Bakx 1990; Godfrey 1990; Schmink and Wood 1992). Although ranching is becoming increasingly significant in Pastaza, and 8.73 percent of the farmers control 37.03 percent of the farmland (Laspina 1981), there is no widespread process of involuntary expulsion of small farmers. City planners suggest that mi-

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TABLE I-POPULATION

CHANGE

IN THE LARGEST SETTLEMENTS

OF PASTAZA

PROVINCE,

ECUADOR, 1974-1990
ROAD DISTANCE FROM PUYO MEAN ANNUAL POPULATION IN GROWTH RATE, 1974-1982 POPULATION IN MEAN ANNUAL GROWTH RATE, 1982-1990

SETTLEMENT

(km)

1982

(%)

1990

(%)

Puyo Shell Mera Veracruz Santa Clara Arajuno Sarayacu Curaray Fatima Montalvo MadreTierra Diez de Agosto Tarqui TenienteOrtiz

6 15 6 45 No road No road No road 8 No road 9 13 8 18

9,758 2,055 569 369 268 256 212 176 146 134 134 130 100 69

9.5 5.1 -1.3 -0.2 1.9 2.9 -1.6 -16.3 -2.3 -6.3 -4.7 0.0 -0.6 -6.3

14,438 3,322 689 463 473 228 283 204 169 580 194 198 143 57

6.0 7.7 2.6 3.2 9.6 -1.4 4.2 2.0 2.0 41.6 5.6 6.5 5.4 -17.4

Sources: Ruiz and Alvear1988; INEC 1991.

gration to Puyo is caused by disenchantment with pioneer agriculture. Young family members, in particular, take advantage of education in rural schools to abandon the rigors of farming in the rain forest and search for alternative income strategies in Puyo. An analysis of deforestation in Morona-Santiago Province reveals a similar situation among second-generation colonists in the southern Oriente (Rudel 1993). Farming an inherited share of the family farm with degraded soils is not an attractive option for the future. Those who establish a farm are faced with the arduous task of repeating their parents' pioneering experience in inaccessible rain forest. In the absence of new road-building projects that will improve access to unclaimed land, many decide to seek alternative income opportunities in urban areas-an option that was not available to the older generation of colonists. Carlos Aramburu observed similar migration of more successful colonists into Peruvian Amazon frontier towns, where they invested in stores, restaurants, repair shops, and other nonagricultural activities (1984). John Terborgh believes that most inhabitants of tropical rain forests in Latin America would gladly trade their farms for a steady job in a town if such employment were available (1993). As observed elsewhere in Latin America, rural-urban migration in the Ecuadorian Amazon is a selective process, with ominous implications for the future of rural areas (Gilbert 1990). Those who abandon the countryside are generally young and educated, whereas the residual rural populations are older, less skilled, and unreceptive to technological changes that would make farming less destructive of the environment. In short, Puyo is draining rural Pastaza of its more talented inhabitants. All of the most populated settlements in Pastaza are seats of administrative units. Road connections are important-and available-to link only nine communities to

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FIG.6-Urban settlementsin the Puyo region. (Cartography by Sang-IlLee, Departmentof Geography,Ohio StateUniversity)

Puyo (Table I, Figure6). The other settlements are in the eastern rain forest and depend on air transportationthrough Shell. Only two urban centerswere characterizedby rapidannualgrowthratesduringthe oil boom of the 197os. Puyo reaped the benefits of an unprecedentedexpansionof public-servicefacilitiesand government employment opportunities. Shell, with its army base and airstrip,displays considerablecorporatevigor but still lags far behind the provincial capital. The majorityof the other settlementshad negativeratesof population growthbetween
1974 and 1982 (Ruiz and Alvear 1988). It would appear that they lost many inhabit-

ants to Puyo during that criticalperiod.

Between 1982 and 1990 Puyo's mean annual growth rate declined from 9.5 per-

cent to 6.0 percent,affectedby the onset of nationaleconomic recessionand shrinking public expenditure.In contrast,the surroundingsmall communities exhibited some signs of a weakrecovery. Apartfrom Arajunoand TenienteOrtiz,ruralsettlement population growth rateswere 2 percentor greater.The abnormallyhigh rate of 41.6 percent for Montalvo,with its male:femaleratio of 4.8:1,is explainedby its function as a militarybase close to the border with Peru (INEC 1991). It would be premature,however,to interpretthe recentrevivalof the small villagesas evidence of provincialpolarizationreversal. In termsof absolutepopulation,Puyo still clearly dominates even the largervillageswithin its sphereof influence. Puyo is the primate central place of the PastazaProvince, monopolizing services, facilities,commerce,and skilled labor.Togetherwith farmersfrom rural ar-

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rT

-4

c- h
,'.

,--..ir -" L?-

u . 4; --? r ;__

a'-

,--sr r

FIG. 7-The rudimentary nature of transportation in the Ecuadorian Amazon is reflected in the simplicity of buses that travel between Nueva Loja and Coca. (Photograph by Roy Ryder, July 1993)

eas, inhabitantsof smallersettlementstravelto Puyo to sell produce,buy supplies, settlelegaland administrative consulta doctor,or find a high school fortheir affairs, children.The prosperityof Puyo does not trickledown throughan urbanhierarchy. small, but provincialplannersconsiderthe town to be Puyo may be comparatively and of activitiesfrom "hyperurbanized" suggestthat thereshouldbe decentralization the provincialcapitalto smallercommunities (Jaramilloand others 1988).
INTERACTION AMONG TOWNS IN THE ECUADORIAN AMAZON

The flow of goods and people is constant between Puyo and the Sierrathrough Ambato and Riobamba,but Puyo has limited interactionwith other settlementsin the Oriente. The roads that cross the rolling foothills, terraces,and plains of the Oriente are no better than those that wind up the precipitousAndean slopes and deep canyons and into the high intermontanevalleys of the Sierra:They are narAn upperlayer row,sinuous,unpaved,and deteriorate rapidlyin inclementweather. of crude oil allows vehicles to travel somewhat fasterin the Nueva Loja-Cocaregion, but the slick surfaceis slipperywhen wet. The rudimentaryroad network limits buses to an averagespeed of approximately20 miles per hour.In addition,inhabitantsof the Amazon areaccustomedto frequentlong delayscaused by rain and landslides.It is not surprising,therefore, that Puyo has direct bus service only to the two nearestprovincial capitalsof the

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Oriente-Tena and Macas. The twelve buses per day to Tena and six buses per day to Macas are continuations of services that link the Sierra to these towns by way of Puyo. The duration of the 5o-mile trip from Puyo to Tena is three hours. A traveler who wishes to continue his trip to Coca, in the dynamic northeastern region, must change buses in Tena and travel another grueling 1oo miles in seven additional hours. Brown and his coauthors consider Puyo a major gateway to the Ecuadorian Amazon (1994). The tenuous bus connection to the northeastern Oriente, however, bespeaks Puyo as a city that has not taken full advantage of its unique central location and proximity to the Sierra. As long as it may be, the six-hour trip south from Puyo to Macas eventually may become a significant outlet for produce from Morona-Santiago Province, because roads in the south-central Oriente are even more primitive. A major landslide in 1993 added a two-hour detour to the nine hours already required to travel 100 miles from Gualaquiza to Cuenca in the Sierra. Furthermore, the principal newspaper in Cuenca recently reported that the 125-mile intraregional trip from Gualaquiza to Macas demands twelve hours of the passenger's time (El Mercurio 1993).

Cartographicanalysisof daily interprovincialbus schedules in other Oriente links with the Sierraare still farmore importowns also suggeststhat extraregional tant than intraregional connectionsare (Ryderand Brown2000). BusesleaveNueva Lojafor Coca hourly (Figure7), but there is no direct service to Tena or Puyo. In contrast,eighteen buses per day go from Nueva Lojato Quito, and five additional Tenaofferssixteendailyconnections to the buses go to cities in the Costa.Similarly, Sierrabut only one bus to Nueva Loja.Coca also offersten buses to the Sierraand Costa everyday.In short,the emergingroadwaynetworkprovidesnew options for travelto the Sierrabut does little to promote interactionwithin the region. Abundantbus connections between northern Oriente towns and Sierracities arerelatedto the origins of the colonists,who emigratedprincipallyfrom the provand Chimborazo.Equallyimportant are the cominces of Pichincha,Tungurahua,
paratively large urban centers of Quito, Ambato, and Riobamba, which offer significant commodities and services. People normally turn to higher-order central places to buy better merchandise, seek professional assistance, or settle administrative affairs. Colonists find little incentive to visit other Oriente towns that are com-

parablein size or smallerthan their place of residence.Justas the small villages in PastazaProvinceare subordinateto Puyo,the largerOrientesettlementsare dominated by Ambato, Riobamba,and, above all, Quito. Towns in the Oriente are not unique in their dependenceon largercities.A nationwideanalysisof bus servicesby Ray and RosemaryBromley demonstratedthe overpoweringinfluence of Quito
and Guayaquil over other Ecuadorean towns (1979).

A more detailedanalysisof transportationin the Orienteis needed to confirm the limited interactionbetweenboom towns. Roadslinking the region to the Sierra pass throughnumerousminor settlements.Localbus and taxi servicesalso connect boom towns to surroundingsmall rural communities. Nonetheless, activities in largerEcuadorianAmazon towns would appearmainly limited to entrepot func-

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tions-reception and distributionof goods and servicesfrom outside the frontier, frontiergoods destinedfor externalmarkets, and goods circulating within the sphere of influence of each town. Justas Browderand Godfreyobservedat populist frontiers of the Brazilian Amazon (1997),towns in the Ecuadorian Amazon evolve into servicecentersbut remaintied to the metropolis,and interactionbetweenthe towns themselvesis limited.
COMPARISON OF AMAZONIAN AND COASTAL PIONEER TOWNS

Townsundoubtedlyhavebecome a significantcomponent of landscapesin the EcuadorianAmazon during the past five decades.Census resultsfor 1990 show that 26.7 percent of the Oriente'spopulation is classifiedas urban. Between 1982and 1990, urban population grew by 62.1 percent,while overall population growth in
the region was only 41.2 percent (INEC 1982,1991). Nueva Loja, Puyo, Tena, and Coca

have experiencedparticularly rapid developmentsince 1970. Such remarkable growthof towns in the Amazonis best kept in properperspective. In the late twentieth century,urban expansion in the Oriente paled in comparison with urbanizationin the Costa. In 1950Ecuadorhad only thirteen towns with more than 1o,ooo inhabitants;by 1982the country had thirty-six additional towns with populations greaterthan 1o,ooo, including twenty-eight in the Costa (Le6n 1987).TableII comparespopulation statisticsof four towns in the Ecuadorian Amazonwith those of threepioneertowns in the Costa.In 1950SantoDomingo was only 50 percentlargerthan Puyo,but by 1990it had accumulatedeight times as many residents.The expansion of Quevedo and Babahoyohas been less dramatic, but they still have grown much more than the largestOrientetowns have. deManyfactorshave contributedto the more rapidcolonization,agricultural velopment,and urbanizationof the Costa.Ridgedfields on the fertileGuayasalluvial floodplain show that intensiveagriculturehas been a traditionalfeatureof the region since prehistorictimes (Parsons1969).The cocoa boom of 1880-1925initiclassbased ated the developmentof an influential,export-orientedentrepreneurial in Guayaquil. In the 1950Sand 196os a bananaboom also stimulatedagro-industrial development and commercialactivitiesthat were partiallychanneledby dynamic Asian minority groups. factor.UnlikeAmazonianfarmlocationhas also been a significant Geographical ers, isolated from coastal ports by two cordilleras,coastal plantation owners and smallholdershave had ready access to internationalmarkets through Guayaquil and the PanamaCanal (Bromley 1981).Locatedbetween the nation'stwo biggest and Quito, farmsin the Costaalso havebeen ableto grow produce cities, Guayaquil for domestic markets.The extraordinarysuccess of Santo Domingo is explained partiallyby successfulefforts of local farmersto diversifyproduction and reduce dependenceon fluctuatinginternationalfood prices by growing produce for con1987).Modernizationof agriculturein the sumption at home and abroad(Gravelin Costa also has sent waves of migrantsto coastaltowns.

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FUTURE DeVELOPMENT OF THE ECUADORIAN AMAZON AND ITS TOWNS

The Oriente has played a major role in Ecuador's development over the past three decades. Amazonian oil generates 40 percent of the country's export income and national budget (Kimerling 1993). Nonetheless, oil has not served to diversify the region's economy or create a more balanced distribution of wealth. In the 1970s, at the peak of the oil boom, planners in the Ecuadorian Amazon protested that a comTABLE II-POPULATION GROWTH OF SELECTED TOWNS IN ECUADOR, 1950-1990

POPULATION

TOWN

1950

1962

1974

1982

1990

Oriente Puyo Nueva Loja Tena Coca 1,092 0 351 66 2,290 0 1,092 237 Costa Santo Domingo Quevedo Babahoyo 1,529 4,168 9,181 6,951 20,602 16,444 30,523 43,101 28,914 69,235 67,023 42,266 114,422 86,910 50,285 4,730 1,762 2,106 1,211 9,758 7,237 5,457 3,996 14,438 13,165 7,873 7,805

Sources: INEC 1950,1962, 1974,1982, 1991.

paratively small portion of oil revenues was invested in the source region (Poveda and Cruz 1988). In the 198os and 199os, when the nation's economy was crippled by massive foreign debt, energetic requests by local authorities for state funds to improve the region's basic infrastructure continued to be unsuccessful. A sense of gloom and pessimism pervades recent studies of the Oriente, where development appears to be up against overwhelming obstacles. Many of the soils have limited value for agriculture, and the most fertile are already occupied by settlers and indigenous groups. Use of poor soils for extensive pasture only leads to severe compaction by cattle as they graze (Custode and Sourdat 1986; De Noni and Trujillo 1986). As a result, opportunities for expansion of sustainable agriculture or ranching are limited (Hicks 1990). Michel Portais speculated that African oil palms could become as significant for the development of the northeastern Oriente in the 198os as bananas were for the Costa in the 1950S(1983). The economic impact of oil palms still is restricted, however, to the Shushufindi area, and there is mounting criticism of plantation fertilizers and insecticides that contaminate the soil and the network of rivers (Martinez Salaberria 1990). Pollution from oil installations has also had a negative impact on the environment. In addition to the major oil spills caused by earthquake and landslide damage to pipelines in 1987 and 1989 (Hicks 1990), regular oil-well operations eject 4.3 million gallons of toxic waste into the rain forest every day (Kimerling 1993). Meanwhile, oil reserves are steadily dwindling.

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Cocaineis producedin the neighboringColombianprovinceof Putumayo(Poveda 1988),and it is fearedthat disheartenedEcuadoriancolonists will turn to cultivation of narcotic crops (Poveda and Cruz 1988; Garcia Negrete 1993). Colombian

guerrillasand rival paramilitarygroups frequentlycross the border for supplies and temporaryrefuge.Manyof the 4,000 Colombianswho live in Nueva Lojahave fled the turmoil of Putumayo.The United States is providing financial assistance in Putumayo effortsto eradicate for Colombiangovernment drugsandnarcoguerillas waves of refugees new (Steinberg2000). The escalatingconflict is expectedto send acrossthe borderto Nueva Loja.Despite the growth of political organizationsdesigned to protect the territorialrights of indigenous groups, reservationsin the
Oriente still are invaded by colonists and oil companies (Trujillo 1988;Nations 1993).

Concern is growing that frustratedEcuadoreansmay be forming guerillaunits of their own in the Oriente. Towns offer few opportunities for employment in manufacturing,and many urban residents rely on income from a public-service sector that is precariously dependent on funds from the national government.Sustained structural-adjustment policies related to Ecuador's foreign-debt crisis will cause reductions in public-service employment and make urban residents of the Amazon even more dependent on the informal sector. The basic infrastructureof most Amazonian settlements is primitive, and many town-dwellers still have no access to clean drinking water or sewer facilities. Nelson Gomez and his coauthors predicted the collapse of towns in the Amazon when oil production finally comes to a halt (1992).The nationalgovernmentwill be unable or uninterestedin maintainingthe fragile, oil-related road network, boom towns will become ghost towns, and oil installationswill be swallowedup by the rain forest.The Orientewill no longerbe a frontierwith potential for developmentbut will revertto its former status of marginal periphery. Some researchers, however,have a more positive view of the Amazon'sfuture. With some improvementsin basic infrastructure, especiallyroads and energysupto producejuice from naranbe established could installations ply,agro-industrial local and African from oil species of peanuts, alcohol and palms jillas, vegetable flour from cassava,meat products from livestock,and meat tenderizerfrom papaand Villacis1988).An appropriate plan would regional-development yas (Jaramillo stimulatesmall-scaleactivitiesdesignedto use other local resources,produceitems for local consumption, and reduce dependenceon commodities brought into the sources.Withmodest financialandtechregionfrom Quito and other extraregional nical support, small, labor-intensivefirms could be establishedin the Oriente to manufacture construction materials, leather goods, and wood products. Early achievementsof the Centro de ReconversionEcon6mica del Austro (Center for Economic Modernizationof the South) were based on a similar strategyof supand industrialenterprises designed porting small-scale,labor-intensiveagricultural and Morona-Santiago(Morris to meet the needs of the provincesof Azuay,Cafiar,
1982).

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As for mineralresources,Rene Benalcazar predictedthat oil explorationwould discoversufficient reservesto extend current rates of extraction to the year 2040 (1989).Even when petroleum reservesbecome exhausted,there are other mineral resourcesto be exploited in the Oriente. Gonzalo Duran estimated that an additional daily supplyof 2,000 tons of cement would be needed to meet the demands of Ecuador'sconstructionindustry (1988);the 300 million tons of limestone in the vicinity of Tenacould satisfythis need for 300 years.Phosphatesdiscoveredin the Amazoncould be used to manunorthernand southernportions of the Ecuadorian facture fertilizer,insecticides, and detergents.Canadian mining companies have identifiedsubstantialdepositsof copper in the southern Oriente.Significantplacer deposits of gold and silver are found throughout the region, as shown by recent events in Nambija, an abandoned Spanish gold-mining settlement near Zamora that a spontaneous invasion of gold miners brought back to life in the 198os. At its peak,the brief gold-mining boom generateda floating population of up to 15,000 miners living in a chaotic urban environment (Uria 1992). Other minerals in the Orienteinclude uranium,kaolin, asphalt,and gemstones.Mineralwealth probably was a fundamentalcause of the strugglebetween Peruand Ecuadorfor Amazonian but now that the long-standingborderdispute has been resolved,a binaterritory, tional technicalcommittee has proposed potential cooperativemining venturesin the southern Oriente. Ecotourism joins agro-industrialdevelopment and mining as an additional potential source of income for both colonists and the indigenous populace. Approximately 18,000 tourists visited Napo Province in 1991 (Wesche 1993). As a result,

therealreadyare eleven lodges and a floating hotel on the Napo and AguaricoRivers. Rolf Wesche makes a strong case for developing low-capital, indigenous, community-operated ecotourism projects designed to accommodate "backpacker"tourists who wish to become familiar with unaltered rain-forest habitats and native settlements (1993). Even remote indigenous communities have

become dependent on modern goods and services, and ecotourism could offer their inhabitants greaterremuneration than can agriculture or forestry.Legislation and state regulation will be needed to prevent negative environmental and cultural impacts associated with irresponsible ecotourism in frontier regions
(Harrington 1993; Butler 1996), however, and it is to be hoped that the growing

presenceof Colombian guerrillasdoes not jeopardizeefforts to promote this new industry.In September1999twelveforeigntouristsand oil workerswerekidnapped by guerrillasat the northeasternfrontier (SeattleTimes 1999). They were released one month later.Ten additionalforeign oil workerswere kidnappedin Sucumbios
by Colombian rebels in October 2000 (CNN 2000). After five months of captivity,

one victim was assassinatedand the remainingnine hostages were releasedin exchangefor ransom payments (CNN 2001). enterprises, mining, and tourism would stimulateurban develAgro-industrial in the Oriente and towns absorb migrants from surrounding rural help opment areas.As colonists move to towns the rate of deforestationshould decline. Subse-

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quent conservation of the rain forest would make availableecological resources, and orchids,that could generateexport income. including spices,pharmaceuticals,
CONCLUSIONS Brian Berry (1996) and Carville Earle (1992) have argued that the North American

frontier advanced in spurts that were tied to waves of economic prosperityand related innovations in technology. The frontier of the EcuadorianAmazon is no strangerto such periodic surges,but with extremelyvaried causes relatedto episodes of both socioeconomic crisis and prosperity.Thus immigration has surged with earthquakes,droughts, and other natural disastersin the Sierra,with landreform policies that led to the expulsion of peasantsfrom haciendas,with foreign investmentsin road constructionto searchfor and extractpetroleum,and with oilrevenue-financeddiffusion of administrativefunds to provincialcapitalsin order to assert geopolitical control of a marginalterritorythreatenedby invasion from Peru. Past experiencesuggeststhat the EcuadorianAmazon will not be controlledor planned by its residents,because the region is at the mercyof exogenous forces.If alternativeincome opportunitiesremainscarcein Ecuador's largestcities,colonists will invadethe rain forest in spontaneouswaves each time foreign enterprisesprovide access roads designed to extracta naturalresource.Moreover,the immediate future of Nueva Loja and the northeasternfrontier may be severelyaffectedby a relativelynew exogenous factor: Escalatingconflicts between Colombian armed forces,paramilitary groups,and guerrillasin neighboringPutumayoProvince,Cothreaten to drive lombia, unprecedentednumbers of refugeesacrossthe border. Puyo and Tenabelong to a well-definedpopulist settlementfrontierin the western piedmont sector of the Ecuadorian Amazon. On the other hand, developments in the northeasternOrientesince the late196ossuggestthatthe extractiveand settlement categoriesin Friedmann's dualisticclassificationof dynamicfrontiersarenot in exclusive a tropicalrain-forestsetting.As soon as an accessroad alwaysmutually was constructedto link the Sierrato the corporateoil-mining camp at LagoAgrio, massive and spontaneousruralsettlementof that region followed,with accompanying urban growth of Nueva Loja and other frontier service centers.Settlement and extractioncontinue to be parallelprocessesin the easternpart of the Ecuadorian Amazon, especiallysouth of Coca. This finding confirms researchby Godfrey and Browder(1996),who discoveredthat populist and corporatemodes of production overlapin many parts of the Brazilian Amazon. The experienceof the Ecuadorian in BrazilshowAmazoncorroborates research ing urbanizationas a fundamentalcomponent of frontier development in South but towns America.Declaringthe Orientean "urbanized jungle"maybe premature, are undoubtedlyoutstandingfeaturesof the region. Rapidurbanizationat the Ecuadorian Amazon frontier is not, however, an indicator of regional economic strength. Prosperityat the North American frontier was reflected in the vibrant financial and wholesalingfunctions of boom towns. In contrast,warehousesand

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banksare not prominent featuresof the urbanlandscapesin the EcuadorianAmazon. Capitalgains from oil extractionor largecattle ranchesare not investedin the local economy but appearto be transferred immediatelyto the nation'score region. As observedin other frontierregions,urban centersin the EcuadorianAmazon do not diffuse economic progressto their hinterlands.To the contrary,provincial by local primacy.They overshadowsmallerurcapitalslike Puyo are characterized ban centersand drain surroundingruralareasof youngerand more educatedindividuals.Rural-urban migrationwill not ceaseas long as nationalgovernmentpolicies continue to favorurbanand industrialdevelopmentand neglectthe needs of smallscale farmersand ruralcommunities. bus schedulessuggest that interaction among the largertowns Interprovincial Amazon is limited:As in other frontierregions,boom towns are of the Ecuadorian tied to nationalcore areas,and the prevalenceof exogenous factorsin the development of frontier regions restrictssignificant intraregionalintegration.Tena may soon sharethe fate of Brazilianrelictmunicipalities.The dynamic easternportion of the province of Napo, administeredby Tena,has been convertedinto two new provinces-Sucumbios, formed in 1989,and Orellana,formed in 1998-governed by the rival boom towns of Nueva Loja and Coca, respectively.Even the dominant towns, Puyo and Nueva Loja,have administratorswho expressconcern about the future if jobs in public service are not augmentedwith employment in other economic sectors. Michel Portais and Jose Rodriguez argue that a strong manufacturing sector is not essential for vigorous urban growth in Ecuador (1987). Long-term survival reflects increased economic specialization (Portais 1987); as in more advanced economies of the world, successful towns in Ecuador are associated with specific areas of development. Ambato and Santo Domingo thrive on their dynamic commercial function, Guayaquil is a financial stronghold, Quito has administrative power, Ibarra and Salinas progress with tourism, and Cuenca is strengthened by commerce and industry. Specialization is still insignificant in the Oriente, however.The population of towns in the Amazon may continue to expand in the near future with additional immigration of the rural poor, but demographic growth without accompanying urban economic growth and specialization will only exacerbateexisting problems of limited income opportunities and deficient urban infrastructure. Ultimately,the futureof towns in the Oriente depends on how Ecuadormanages economic developmentthroughout its Amazonianregion.A "post-oil boom" collapseof the regionalurbannetworkas predictedby G6mez and his coauthorsin 1992is excessivelypessimistic.The Oriente has alternativeresourcesthat motivate continued occupance.On the otherhand,the interiorlocation of the regionappears to precludethe dramaticgrowthexperiencedby towns in the Costaduringthe latter A more likelyscenario,one observedin otherregionsof half of the twentiethcentury. the world, is that selectedAmazoniantowns with advantageouslocations, resource endowments,and politicalclout will prosper,while others fade away.

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