In 1996, the Ecuadorian government gave concession of an oil block deep in the Amazon rainforest to a fuel company. The land was in indigenous territory, belonging to the Kichwa people of Sarayaku. The government didn’t tell the Kichwa about this decision. They didn’t ask permission. In fact, the Kichwa only learned that their land had been opened for oil exploration after they started seeing helicopters and men with guns in the jungle. Throughout the next 16 years, the people of Sarayaku fought the government. In 2012 – in a groundbreaking victory – the Ecuadorian government took responsibility for violating the Kichwa’s ancestral lands and their rights. A court ruled that the government must consult with indigenous people in such situations, and pay physical and moral damages to the community. This story may sound similar to that of the Standing Rock Sioux and Cheyenne River tribes, who fought the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline. But in Sarayaku, the indigenous group won.
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