“They come to cut our trees.
They come to pollute our water.
They come to destroy our way of life. "
These are the words of Nemonte Nenquimo.
Nenquimo is a woman from the Waorani indigenous community.
And has legally enforced the protection of their homeland - the protection of the rainforest in Ecuador.
The Waorani are people of the forest
»Waorani« means »people«. The people of the forest live in eastern Ecuador, in an area of around 10,000 square kilometers. The Waorani have lived in this jungle for centuries. Long before Spanish conquistadors reached the country, before lumberjacks and rubber manufacturers discovered the forest as a source of raw materials, and before the appetite of international oil companies grew, the community lived from hunting, fishing and agriculture.
Today the home of the Waorani is not only an important carbon store, but also one of the most biodiverse regions in the world: People share the land with more than 200 species of mammals, 600 species of birds, almost 300 species of fish and thousands of species from the class of insects.
"The Waorani have always been protectors, they have defended their territory and their culture for thousands of years," Nenquimo once told the BBC.
She continued what her ancestors did for centuries.
Has the government deceived the forest dwellers?
In the east, the Waorani settlement area extends into the Yasuní National Park.
But oil companies are interested in a part of the west because they suspect rich deposits in the ground.
And the country's government would have liked to turn corporate interests into money.
To this end, the Ecuadorian government wanted to auction the rights to extract oil in that area in an international auction. In 2012, it was said that government officials had reached an understanding with Waorani people to sell land to oil companies. But soon accusations were raised: The government had deceived and cheated the Waorani. Government officials had collected the Waorani signatures, ostensibly to determine the number of residents in the area. But later those signature lists were presented as an expression of approval by the indigenous peoples. Other members of the indigenous community have not been contacted at all. The government announced that 180,000 hectares of land would be released for oil production.
And Nemonte Nenquimo struggled.
On her initiative, four indigenous communities from the Amazon region founded the Alianza Ceibo alliance to stand up for their concerns together.
In 2018, the Waorani in the province of Pastaza elected Nenquimo as their president.
She organized meetings, called the individual groups together and started a digital campaign with the slogan »Our rainforest is not for sale«.
Around 380,000 people from around the world signed the petition that Nenquimo launched.
The fight will be fought in court
In February 2019, Nemonte took Nenquimo to court.
Supported by the organization Amazon Frontlines, she filed a lawsuit against the government of Ecuador at the Provincial Court of Pastaza.
The gist of this lawsuit read that the Waorani were not sufficiently involved in the negotiations.
The verdict was due in April.
Hundreds of Waorani arrived, some of them by canoe because they live in regions of the rainforest where there are no roads.
Many of the women had painted their faces with a red stripe around their eyes, the color of the seeds of the annatto bush.
The court ruled: The country of the Waorani is under special protection according to the constitution. Indigenous groups have an "inalienable, impassable and indivisible" right to remain in possession of their ancestral land. Although the natural resources belong to the state, plans for a possible use of the resources must be negotiated with indigenous groups - and fairly. The process in which the government tried to involve the Waorani in 2012 showed widespread failures: incomprehensible communication, grossly inadequate timing, neglected translation problems, poorly designed information materials, incorrect reporting on compliance - and malicious intent. The Constitutional Court in Quito upheld the verdict three months later.
The legal ruling has symbolic power
With this ruling, 500,000 hectares of Amazon rainforest and Waorani area were permanently protected from oil production.
And for the first time in the history of Ecuador an indigenous people were granted the right to live in their ancestral lands - a precedent.
Time magazine recognized Nenquimo as one of the 100 most influential personalities last year.
Commitment to nature conservation is dangerous and it is increasing all the time.
In 2020, more environmentalists were murdered than ever before.
“The government tried to sell our land to the oil companies without our consent.
Our rainforest is our life.
We decide what happens on our land.
We will never sell our rainforest to the oil companies, ”said Nemonte Nenquimo on the day the verdict was announced.
“Today the court recognized that the Waorani people and all indigenous peoples have rights over our territories that must be respected.
The government's interests in oil are no more valuable than our rights, our forests and our lives. "