Oil drilling sparks Indigenous protests and leaks stain the Ecuadorian Amazon September 6, 2024

Indigenous communities are divided over whether oil exploration is an economic benefit or an environmental disaster (Rodrigo BUENDIA)

By AFP - Agence France Presse

Oil drilling sparks Indigenous protests and leaks stain the Ecuadorian Amazon

Santiago PIEDRA SILVA

A thick oil slick covers part of an estuary in the Ecuadorian Amazon, where the indigenous Waorani people are begging the authorities to stop drilling for the black gold that continues to pour into their environment.

Black mud also covers the vegetation along a road that leads to the village of Guiyero, in the Yasuni National Park, one of the most diverse biospheres in the world.

“It's time to say enough! They have abused us,” Ene Nenquimo, vice-president of the Waorani Nationality (Nawe) organization, told AFP, wearing a multicolored feather headdress.

The oil spill occurred in June, according to environmentalists, the last of many in the reserve.

State oil company Petroecuador admitted that an undetermined amount of oil leaked into the environment from one of its blocks, contaminating water sources in several towns and reaching the Napo River, a tributary of the Amazon.

“Big lizards died,” lamented Pablo Ahua, 44, one of the almost 100 indigenous people who live in Guiyero, near one of the reserve's oil wells.

- The deadline for the referendum expires -

Yasuni National Park was thrust into the international spotlight last year after Ecuadorians voted to prevent drilling in a block of the reserve, a move hailed as a historic example of climate democracy.

The reserve spans more than one million hectares (2.5 million acres). It is home to at least three of the world's last uncontacted indigenous populations and an abundance of plant and animal species.

The referendum demanded that the government stop extraction from Block 43 by August - however, only one of the 247 wells has been closed.

The government estimates that it will take at least five years to cut all production from the block, which produces 50,000 barrels a day, around 10% of the country's total production.

Nenquimo said that the Ecuadorian state “must respect” the referendum, “like it or not”.

Some residents, like Nenquimo, want to stop all oil extraction in the reserve and elsewhere in the Ecuadorian Amazon.

Oil spills leave “an immense impact that no one can remedy”, said Nenquimo.

“They say (the oil) is for the development of the communities and there is no development. All that remains is the environmental damage.”

- 'We are forgotten' - you

However, others support the oil companies and the benefits that economic growth has brought to their villages.

In 2023, Ecuador estimated losses of US$16.47 billion over two decades if it closed Block 43, one of 80 blocks in the country's part of the Amazon.

Oil exploration has been one of the pillars of Ecuador's economy since the 1970s.

Crude oil, its main export, generated revenues of US$7.8 billion in 2023.

Indigenous communities are the most affected by poverty in Ecuador, which stood at 25.5% in June. Extreme poverty affects more than 10% of the country's population of 17 million.

“We are not taken care of, we are forgotten” due to the lack of essential services, such as health care, said Nenquimo.

The Waorani tribe is made up of around 4,000 people who own around 800,000 hectares (2 million acres) in the Amazon, although they claim another 1.2 million hectares (3 million acres).

In Ecuador, the Constitution recognizes the “collective ownership of land as an ancestral form of territorial organization” of indigenous peoples.

The state, however, retains control over everything under the soil.

- 'High cancer rates' - Kevin Koenig

Kevin Koenig, from the NGO Amazon Watch, highlighted another danger for the residents of Yasuni: the links between those living near oil wells and “high rates of cancer”.

He called on developed countries to finance environmental protection with alternatives such as debt swaps.

The Yasuni National Park is home to species of around 2,000 trees, 610 birds, 204 mammals, 150 amphibians, and more than 120 reptiles, according to the San Francisco University in Quito.

In Guiyero, a group of Indigenous men, naked and carrying spears, sing in their language, wao terero.

“They are saying: Help us defend our territory,” said translator Freddy Nihua, leader of the Wao of Orellana, one of the two provinces of the Yasuni.

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