Work

Implementing just fossil fuel transition: extreme Citizen Science to enforce the ban on gas flaring activities in the Ecuadorian Amazon

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: Oil extraction in the Ecuadorian Amazon Region (EAR) has generated severe environmental and health impacts on Indigenous and rural territories. In response, the climate justice campaign ‘Apaguen los Mecheros’ contributed to a landmark ruling by the Court of Nueva Loja (2021), ordering the progressive shutdown of gas flaring (GF) near populated centers and its complete phase-out by 2030. Yet compliance with this ruling remains highly contested. Grounded in an eight-year Extreme Citizen Science process within the campaign, this study assesses post-ruling compliance through independent satellite-based monitoring, combined for the first time with dedicated ground-mapping fieldwork. The study assesses GF dynamics between 2012 and 2024, detects and validates emerging flare sites, compares this evidence with official documentation on flare shutdowns, and provides an updated estimate of GF in the EAR, combining annual and daily Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) Nightfire data, a 2019 participatory ground-truthing dataset and a 2026 ground-mapping survey. Results show that GF in the EAR has not declined since the ruling: active flare sites increased from 58 in 2012 to 91 in 2024, while annual flared volumes rose from 0.82–1.69 billion cubic meter (BCM). Daily detections and ground mapping jointly identified 47 flare sites absent from the 2019 dataset, indicating continued expansion and reconfiguration of flaring infrastructure, disproportionately concentrated in oil blocks that only recently resumed operations. Comparison with official dismantling reports further shows that, of the 110 sites oil companies reported as dismantled under Phase I of the national reduction plan, 72 could be independently assessed and 37 of these (51%) remain active, suggesting that shutdown efforts have prioritized low-activity flares while larger facilities, several near urban centers, continue to expand. Overall, we provide an updated inventory of between 198 and 252 potentially active flares, against 91 sites confirmed as dismantled. Fieldwork further documented flaring practices not previously reported in Ecuador and largely invisible to satellite monitoring such as enclosed ground flares (EGFs) and gas venting. In a wider perspective, this study demonstrates how open-access remote sensing, combined with citizen-generated ground evidence, can support independent, transparent, and scalable verification of environmental compliance in politically contested extractive frontiers.

Source: Environmental Research Letters

DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/aea7ba