Pastaza Province
The Pastaza Province (Spanish: Provincia del Pastaza ) is a province in Ecuador. It is located in the Oriente of Ecuador called share the Amazon basin and bears the name of Pastaza, a tributary of the Amazon. The province has an area of 29,500 km ² approximately 75,000 inhabitants. The capital is Puyo. The nature of the province is characterized by high biodiversity.
Geography
The Pastaza province lies between 75 ° 30 ' and 78 ° 20' west longitude and 1 ° 10 ' and 2 ° 40' south latitude. Thus it is in a north-south axis in the center of the Amazon region, the eastern part of the country of Ecuador. It is bordered on the north by the provinces of Napo and Orellana, on the east by Peru ( Loreto region ) in the south to the province of Morona Santiago and to the west also to Morona Santiago and the Andes province of Tungurahua. It is the largest province in the country and according to the Galápagos Islands the one with the lowest population.
The climate in most of the Pastaza province, part of the Amazon basin is tropical with temperatures between 18 and 24 ° C. To the east of the province, which is one of the subandinen Cordillera, the foothills of the Andes, the climate is a bit cooler depending on the height.
The majority of the province is covered by partially pristine Tropical Rainforest. This has a high biodiversity and is reported in part as a nature reserve.
The main rivers that flow through the province, are the eponymous Pastaza, which forms the border with the province of Morona Santiago, its tributaries Bobonaza and Copastaza, the Curaray, the Río Tigre, the Pintoyacu, the Cunambo, Corrientes, the Río Chico and Alpayacu. The rivers have diverse, often spectacular waterfalls.
Population
The Pastaza Province is the most sparsely populated province with a population density of just 2.5 inhabitants per km ². The population is concentrated in a small, situated at the foot of the Andes in the west part of the province. The largest city is the capital Puyo with about 28,000 inhabitants ( 2005). As a base for the oil industry is also still Mera significant.
The rest of the province, part of the Amazon basin is largely uninhabited. He was, until a few decades ago reserved for indigenous peoples of the Shuar, Achuar, Huaorani and zaparo and is run lately increasingly for oil production activities. Most of the inhabitants of the province are immigrant mestizos and besides the said indigenous people, the so-called Amazonian Quichua (also called Canelo - Quichua ).
Economy
In recent decades, since Shell began in 1941 with the first holes in the Pastaza province, the oil production has become the financially most important industry in the province. However, it is increasingly taking place in remote areas outside the main settlement areas that were hitherto almost entirely reserved for the indigenous peoples.
In the small main settlement areas in the west of the province agriculture (sugar cane, bananas, yuca, tobacco, tea) and livestock predominate (cattle, dairy farming ). The industry is limited to processing agricultural primary goods and arts and crafts industry ( fabrics, ceramics, musical instruments). In addition, fishing takes place in the rivers of the province, in which partly gold can be washed.
As the forests of the province are rich in species, also eco-tourism is a growing industry, its most important resource, however, is threatened by logging and partly by the oil production. In addition, the infrastructure links the province of Pastaza in the Andean provinces is not as good as in the province of Napo, making the tourism demand is there more developed than in Pastaza.
History
The Incas did not exert influence over the Amazon region. To colonial times the area of the modern province of Pastaza Provincia de los Canelos was called, after the name of an indigenous people of the same name. At the same time the name is an allusion to the hope that there the legendary Zimtland (Spanish canela = cinnamon ) and Eldorado to find that for Gonzalo Pizarro expedition gave rise among other things. Cinnamon was highly sought after and precious in the 16th century and Gonzalo Pizarro had been reported by huge cinnamon trees east of the Andes. In fact, cinnamon trees grow only in Asia, so it is. During rehearsals, which received Pizarro to other Lauraceae, such as from the genus Ocotea or the Nectandra should have acted The trees of Nectandra coeloclada that occur in the Pastaza province, are still known as Canelo and beaten as tropical woods and processed.
In Canelos the first mission station Pastazas was set up in 1624, but developed low charisma. The areas of the province remained largely indigenous population reserved. Changed in this state even after the independence of Greater Colombia or Ecuador little. In the years 1880-1915 reached from Iquitos from the rubber boom in Ecuador. In the present province of Pastaza, he remained on the less developed areas in the east (at the Curaray ) limited and primarily led to the enslavement and forced labor of the Huaorani.
In the 1880s and 1890s, the justification of places and mission stations was intensified again. In this context, the present capital Puyo arose, first in 1889 on the site of a Shuar settlement, which shortly afterwards by the Indians from Macas (now the province of Morona Santiago) was destroyed around 1897 and founded new to the area. Population influx, limited urbanization and infrastructural development began to a significant extent only after 1940 with the oil-producing activities or after the opening of the road from Baños to Puyo in 1942., 1949, the promotion activities were initially set to be unprofitable before in the 1950s and 1960s, new prospecting began. The main residential electricity occurred after 1972, when on the one hand a settlement program of the Military Government for the Amazon lowlands (as a result of drought in the Andean region ) and started off on the other hand, the oil-producing activities were intensified in newly developed fields.
In 1921, the provinces of Napo - Pastaza and Santiago Zamora were created by refining the territorial legislation in the Amazon lowlands. Capital of Napo - Pastaza was Tena, the current capital of the province of Napo. The Pastaza province itself was created in 1959 when the provinces of Napo and Pastaza were separated. Time it consisted of a single canton, the canton of Pastaza established in 1911 with capital of Puyo.
The eastern boundary of the present province of Pastaza was pulled relatively arbitrary after the Peruvian- Ecuadorian War in the Protocol of Rio de Janeiro (1942 ). The result of this war was a reduction of Ecuador in favor of the Peruvian territory.
Administrative divisions
Policy
The province is governed by Prefect Jaime Guevara Blaschke, who won as an independent candidate of his " Movimiento Unidos por Pastaza " (Eng. movement together for Pastaza ) the 2004 elections. He shares his power with the mayors of the canton capitals, among them the mayor of Puyo, Oscar Ledesma from the Partido Sociedad Patriótica ( PSP), who was elected in an electoral alliance with the regional parties " Movimiento Independiente Pastaza en Marcha " ( MIPM ) and Mrla. An official appointed by the government of Ecuador is currently governor Ángel Jiménez Guamán.
Cantons
The Pastaza province is currently divided into four cantons. These are ( in order of establishment ):