Sinangoe: Defending A’i Kofan Ancestral Territory
“Despite a number of oil spills, pipeline ruptures and mismanaged waste water disposal sites that directly threaten the lives and health of our communities, the oil industry and the Ecuadorian government are still hiding the facts from us, so we need to gather our own information in order to defend ourselves.”
Hernán Payaguaje, Secoya.
The Situation
The Ecuadorian Amazon, one the most biodiverse places on Earth, has been transformed into one of the most active deforestation fronts in the Amazon and is the epicenter of one of the most environmentally damaging oil operations of all time.
For the past fifty years, indigenous peoples and their territories have seen their communities’ rivers and wetlands, and forests poisoned without ever having access to information related to the causes and consequences of this contamination.
The Vision
Designed to provide tangible tools and key information to the Kofan, Siona, Secoya, and Waorani communities on the forefront of this significant pollution, deforestation and land degradation, the Environmental Monitoring Program measures environmental impacts and mitigates their damage to indigenous territories and families.
We are empowering indigenous communities to gain vital information and generate a body of evidence that each nationality can then use to advocate for greater territorial protection.
