Ecuador

In a climate of repression, the Ecuadorian government is racing against the clock to begin construction on the largest hydropower dam in the country. This project could devastate dozens of Shuar communities and submerge a vast area of ancestral territory in the heart of the Ecuadorian Amazon.

Indigenous Peoples from Ecuador are calling for support to stop the expansion of the oil frontier in the Ecuadorian Amazon. Three million hectares of the Amazon rainforest are to be handed over to oil companies, impacting countless Indigenous Peoples.

Our organisations unanimously express our grave concern about the situation of repression and human rights violations, particularly against human rights defenders, Indigenous Peoples, peasant and Afro-descendant communities, women and young people, and civil society organisations.

How does one rebuild community ties and the “energy-joy” in communities whose territories have been devastated by predatory projects? The following text presents the proposal of the Environmental Clinic, a project that was created to help heal peasant and indigenous communities on the border between Ecuador and Colombia, whose social fabric was destroyed mainly by oil extraction projects. The 'Huipala Proposal' presents a way for these communities to move toward their utopias and recover the “energy-joy” of living, after suffering the traumas of territorial and social expropriation.

Using the argument of “sustainable development”, governments in the Amazon region continue providing incentives for extractivism. In the face of this, indigenous leader Alessandra Munduruku vents her thoughts: “What we need is the demarcation of indigenous territories. Enough talk of bioeconomy, of sustainability, when there is violence in the here and now.”

The Amazon region is one of the final frontiers of resistance to capital expansion. This is epitomized by the struggles of social activists such as Chico Mendes, as well as by the presence of most of the earth’s remaining indigenous peoples in voluntary isolation. However, different forms of ‘green’ extractivism are currently and increasingly advancing on this territory.

The Ecuadorian people's decision to stop oil extraction in the Yasuní National Park now brings new challenges: How do you recover a territory that has been sacrificed, and bring justice to affected areas, with the solidarity of the whole country?

In this editorial, at a time in which elites and oil companies continue to cling to the power and profit derived from fossil fuels, we would like to acknowledge the contribution that the Ecuadorian people have made to the world in the fight for territories free of oil exploitation.

In this bulletin, focused on the violence that the so-called ‘green economy’ represents for Indigenous Peoples and peasant communities, we remember an interview with Josephina Lema, member of the Otavalo people of the Kichwa (Quechua) nation.

A recent Popular Consultation in Ecuador attempted to include, among other things, ‘environmental services offsets’ as a constitutional right. The majority of voters voted against it. However, this attempt serves as a warning about the interests that wish to strengthen policies of appropriation and the commodification of nature.

There are currently 270,000 hectares of oil palm plantations in Ecuador. The resistance processes of the communities of La Chiquita, Guadualito and Barranquilla de San Javier in the region of Esmeraldas continue to generate outrage and solidarity among other communities, and internationally.

One of the main causes of deforestation in Mesoamerica is the expansion of oil palm monoculture. An exchange of experiences brought together representatives from indigenous and peasant communities to coordinate their resistance.