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Ecuador Report

Ecuador has differences in the lay of the land, the climate and its' problems. Ecuador is located on the North Western corner of South America. It borders the Pacific Ocean, Colombia, and Peru. It is directly on the equator. It has 2,237 kilometers of Pacific coastline. Colombia borders it for 590 kilometers, and it borders Peru for 1,420 kilometers. It claims the continental shelf between Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands and its territorial sea extends 200 nautical miles from the mainland. Ecuador has three distinct climates each with its own sub-climates. The coastal lowland climate is hot and humid and regulated by the Humbolt Current. The second climate is the inter-Andean. It's located between the two ranges of Andean mountains. It's located at a high altitude and is mild and dry and generally stays about 60 degrees F. The final major climate is the eastern lowlands that is a rain forest. The climate there is warm and dry near the mountains, and hot and very humid with frequent rainstorms as the lowlands are approached. The topography for Ecuador is the coastal plain, the mountainous Andes, and inner South America that is the Amazon Basin.

The main environmental problems are the burning of the rain forest by farmers, the cutting down of the rain forest by the lumber industry, and pollution by the oil industry including oil spills. Ecuador is subject to severe earthquakes caused by the subduction of the Nazda Plate.

All three areas differ in geography, climate, politically, and in ways of making a living.

Ecuador is largely agricultural except in the city regions, the oil pumps, and where other businesses are. Agriculture was the only business in Ecuador until lately. Now only 1/3 of the population is engaged in agriculture. A few of the crops that Ecuador grows are sugarcane, bananas, rice, corn, coffee, and many others including many drugs sold on the streets around the world. They also raise pigs, cattle, sheep, and chickens. They have many natural resources including oil, fish, timber, and what made it valuable to the Spanish, gold. Oil related fields are the predominant industry in an area that has many minor industries, such as foodstuffs, beverages, textile products, pharmaceuticals, lumber, fishing, and various chemicals. Ecuador is now the third largest exporter of oil in Latin America and rising fast.

The economy is slowly getting better. The inflation rate is only 25% thanks to Pres. Ballen who brought it down from the previous rate of 55%. The unemployment rate is 7.1%. The national GDP in American currency is roughly 12 billion dollars. The GDP ranking in the world is 71st and the GDP per person (still in US. $) is 1,070. The annual growth rate of the economy is 4.4%. Ecuador's major trading partners are the US., Germany, and Peru.

The people are important. As of July 1995 the population of Ecuador was 10,890,950. Welfare is carried out and paid for by churches using money gotten through tithes, which almost everyone does, as 90% of the people are Roman Catholic. The infant mortality rate is 37.7/1000, the birthrate is 25.08/1000, and the death rate is 5.55/1000 thanks to modern medicine, this means that Ecuador's population is rapidly increasing. Each female on the average produces 2.97 live children during her life. The migration rate is low. The survival rate is people of the ages of 0-14 only 36% survive, of this the inhabitants of Ecuador ages 15-64 60% still live, and finally only 4% of the people above 65 live. The distribution is about 54% urban and 46% rural. The largest city is Guayaquil that has a population of 1,572,615 and the capitol is Quito with a population of 1,137,705. The infra structure is mainly in the coastal lowlands and is composed of roads, bridges, public water and sewage, ports, airports, and railroads. They are accessible to anyone who lives in the right area, but that area is rapidly becoming larger.

Ecuador was ruled by the Incas until 1532. When Pizzarro, a Spanish conquistador defeated the Inca at Cajamarca on that date. Later in life Pizzarro set up a colony called Ecuador, named that because it was on the equator. In 1809 there was the first uprising against Spanish rule and kept it until 1822 when they finally defeated the Spanish and joined the Colombian Federation. In 1830 the Colombian Federation was disbanded and the fledging country went its own way forming a democratic republic a few years later, with a constitution similar to what the United States of America has. In 1957 a dictatorship took over and had fourteen leaders in eleven years until democracy took over in 1968. In 1970 Velasco Ibarra took over and once again Ecuador was a dictatorship, he died in 1972. The constitution was reinstated and in 1976 Burbano took power and changed Ecuador back to a dictatorship. In 1979 Ecuador was back to being a democracy and Jamie Roldos Aguilera was sworn in as president after winning an election by a narrow margin. In 1982 declining oil exports lead to serious economic problems. That year President and Mrs. Roldos died in a plane crash, later determined to be a pilot error while landing. His vice president took over two days later and brought the economy back up within a year. From there Ecuador has stayed democratic and its history has been relatively uneventful. The independence of Ecuador was on May 28, 1822. Independence Day for Ecuador is on August 10 because on that date in 1809 the capital Quito achieved independence.

Ecuador has many different cultural traits and here is part of what makes them unique. Although the official language is Spanish, there are many different languages of which Quechua is the most popular and the most widespread. The main ethnic groups are the Mestizo, the Spanish, the Africans, the native Indians, and the whites. They are divided as follows: 54% Mestizo, 24% Indian, 9% Spanish, 9% Africans, and 4% white. Amazingly enough, there really isn't any major tension between the various races. The major religion is Roman Catholic, but there are other minor religions that are for the most part Christian even though there is absolute freedom of worship. Education in Ecuador is voluntary, but almost everyone goes. There are 16,146 schools for grades 1-6 and 2,027 schools for grades 7-12. Fully one third of government expenditures are for education. None of these figures include the hundreds of private schools and tutors. You only have to pay for your education if you have the money, but it is available to everyone even if you're dirt poor (many are). 76.6% of the people are literate by our standards.

Ecuador is a republic that is governed democratically. There are three branches of the government the executive, the judicial, and the legislative. There are seven major parties: the Party of Republican Unity (PUR), the Conservative Party (PCE), the Democratic Left (ID), Social Christian Party (PSC), the Popular Democracy (DP), the Christian Democratic Party (PDC), and the Radical Alfarist Front (FRA). In all, fourteen parties hold seats in the legislature as follows PSC-25, PRE-11, MPD-8, ID-7, DP-7, PCE-7, PUR-2, CFP-2, APRE-2, PSE-1, FRA/PLRE-1, LN-1, and independents-2. The current president is Sixto DURAN Ballen and the current vice-president is Alberto DAHIK. The judicial system is based on ours, but bribes are common. The conventional long form of its name is the Republic of Ecuador, the conventional short form is Ecuador. The local long form is Republic del Ecuador, and the local short form is just Ecuador. It is divided into 20 provinces although at times it has been 21. There are border disputes with both Peru and Colombia about small strips of land at the border, near the mountains where no one has drawn exact borders because most are unwilling to cross those regions.

Ecuador as mentioned earlier has a lot to offer the world all the way from oil to culture and to the strange new medicines being discovered in the Amazon Rain forest. At present Ecuador faces many problems of which include pollution from the oil industry, the poverty of many inhabitants, and the cutting down of and the burning of the rain forest. In the future these basic problems will remain although some will disappear over time. Ecuador is a varied and beautiful country to visit in the wonderful continent of South America.

Works cited

"Destination Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands" . Lonely Planet . Internet

"Ecuador" . Encarta . Redmond Washington . 1994

"Ecuador" . CIA Publications and Handbooks, World Factbook 95 . Internet . 1995

Periodical . "Portrait of Ecuador" . Portrait of Ecuador, Foreign Affairs of Ecuador . no date . PP#S 1-S 24

Mac Globe . "Ecuador" . Mac Globe . Broderbund . 1.5.0 . 1993

Thanks to all helped me on this even though all along the line in it has been overdue, and special thanks to my world cultures teacher, Ms. Collitt who can be very annoying when she wants to be, and to Mrs. Pifer who let me use the computer lab to get everything wrapped up.

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