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On March 5th, our sister organization, Fundación Pachamama, along with Amazon Watch and the Center for Economic and Social Rights, jointly launched an awareness campaign to halt Ecuador’s current plans for new oil development. The event, held at the Mindalae Museum in Quito, drew more than 200 people.
Marlon Vargas, an Achuar youth leader who spoke at the gathering summed it up well: “If the forest disappears, so do we. But we don't just defend it for ourselves, we do it for the well-being of all humanity.”
Protesting the Erosion and Extinction of Cultural and Biological Diversity
At the same time that the Ecuador’s Yasuní-ITT Initiative protects 220,000 acres of rainforest, the country’s new round of oil development, called the XI Oil Round, threatens close to 10 million acres, 85% of which is estimated to be virgin forest. The area up for auction, located in the south-central part of the Ecuadorian Amazon, has been divided into 16 separate blocks that are currently open to state and private companies for bidding.
Expressing the Issue through Art
The event featured speakers, musicians, filmmakers, and actors, all of whom used their respective creative mediums to shed light on what the oil round puts at risk. Included in this artistic effort was a photographic exhibition titled “The Ecuadorian Amazon that remains. Green and black in contrast.” The exhibition, which will go on tour throughout Ecuador, contrasts photos of Amazon rainforest untouched by oil drilling with photos of areas that have been devastated by it. It also features photos of indigenous peoples who have lived in the area slated for oil drilling for countless generations.
Ecuador’s south central Amazon is home to the Shuar, Achuar, Kichwa, Shiwiar, Andoa, Zápara, and Waorani indigenous nations. If the Round goes through, the Zápara will lose 100% of their territory, and they, along with these other indigenous groups, could be put at risk of extinction.
Choosing Short-term Gain Over Long-term Benefit
Lending an economic perspective, Eduardo Pichilingue, coordinator for the Collective Rights Monitoring Group at the Center for Economic and Social Rights, stated, “There is something deeply wrong about a development model that violates the human rights of some of the poorest and most marginalized people on the planet while benefiting foreign companies and individuals that earn billions upon billions of dollars.” Amazon Watch, in its own report on this event, notes that Chevron’s revenue in 2012 far exceeded Ecuador’s 2012 GDP.
While the international community has rallied in support of halting the XI Oil Round, one of the main goals of this campaign is to raise awareness among Ecuadorian citizens who, it is believed, could be especially influential in pressuring Ecuador’s government to choose the long-term benefit of rainforest conservation over the temporary benefit of oil extraction. It is estimated the amount of oil in the area would supply a just days or weeks worth of oil at present global consumption rates.
