The Indigenous A’i Cofán people invoke their ancestors and carry spears but also use drones, GPS mapping and the courts as they fight to protect their land from a rapacious gold rush
More than 2,800 kilometers (1,740 miles) of pipelines run through the Amazon and along the coasts of Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador and Colombia. These hundreds of pipelines transport millions of liters of crude oil from the most delicate ecosystems through to the cargo ships that will transport them to their final destination. Along the way, in […]
By Patricia Armijo Sinangoe, Ecuador, Feb 8 (EFE).- A small indigenous community in Ecuador’s Amazon region that last week won a major court victory granting it authority to block extractive concessions now is trying to secure title to land it says has been plundered for decades. Sinangoe – located in the vast eastern province of …
Ecuador court orders end to gas flaring by oil industry in Amazon
In the Ecuadoran Amazon, at least 447 flares have been burning gas for decades.
Local communities say these flares are responsible for the high cancer rates in the area.
The Sucumbíos Provincial Court ruled in January that the Ecuadoran state had ignored the rights of nine girls to live in a healthy environment.
It also found that the government had violated their rights to good health by not providing clean technologies that would avoid contamination.
“I’m very happy because, finally, justice has been served. We’re going to restore nature, for all the sick children, for the people, for the parents who have fought to stay healthy, for the families that have also kept fighting if only to grow a few crops, for the families who live under the flares and have had to abandon their land,” says 10-year-old Leonela Moncayo. She had just found out that, on Jan. 26, 2021, a court in Ecuador had ruled in favor of he