QUITO, ECUADOR – In a small corner of Ecuador’s Yasuní national park is the village of Llanchama. This Indigenous Quichua community is carved out of the dense Amazonian rainforest along the Tiputini River. But for nearly 10 years an entirely different development has been attempting to establish itself on the village’s borders: the Ishpingo-Tambococha-Tiputini (ITT)ContinueContinue reading “‘This is something that divides us’: Ecuador’s turbulent transition from oil dependence (The Guardian)”
Tag Archives: oil
Crude Awakening: Why Ecuador voted to stop drilling in the Amazon (Climate One, podcast)
YASUNI, ECUADOR – Was happy to work on this podcast about the Yasuni referendum in Ecuador, where the country voted to stop oil drilling in one area of the national park. I traveled to the Amazon, where locals actually voted to continue oil drilling here to find what was up with that. The situation isContinueContinue reading “Crude Awakening: Why Ecuador voted to stop drilling in the Amazon (Climate One, podcast)”
‘Just by breathing we are contaminated’: schoolgirls fight to extinguish Ecuador’s gas flares (The Guardian)
LAGO AGRIO, ECUADOR – Fourteen-year-old Leonela Moncayo gets angry when she talks about the gas flares burning near her home. She grew up on the outskirts of Lago Agrio, a city on the edge of Ecuador’s Amazon rainforest, at the heart of its oil industry, where patches of tropical forest canopy are interspersed with oilContinueContinue reading “‘Just by breathing we are contaminated’: schoolgirls fight to extinguish Ecuador’s gas flares (The Guardian)”
First-ever regional court case involving rights of uncontacted peoples awaits verdict (Mongabay)
QUITO, ECUADOR – Deep in Ecuador’s northern Amazon rainforest live the Tagaeri and Taromenane Indigenous nations, the last two communities in the country who have never set foot outside of the jungle. They have long resisted all outsiders’ contact and continue fiercely defending their remaining territory. But over the years, three massacres in 2003, 2006ContinueContinue reading “First-ever regional court case involving rights of uncontacted peoples awaits verdict (Mongabay)”
Court convenes historic hearing in Indigenous territory on land consent issue (Mongabay)
SINANGOE, ECUADOR – Early on the morning of Nov. 15, five Constitutional Court judges arrived by canoe to the Indigenous Cofan community of Sinangoe in Ecuador’s northern Amazon rainforest, wearing rubber boots and loose clothing to weather the intense jungle heat. This visit marked the first time in the country’s history that judges from theContinueContinue reading “Court convenes historic hearing in Indigenous territory on land consent issue (Mongabay)”
‘Trapped again’: Quarantined Ecuador indigenous groups fight Amazon oil spill (Reuters)
QUITO, ECUADOR – When the Kichwa community closed off their village near the Coca River in Ecuador’s northern Amazon rainforest in March to protect themselves from the coronavirus pandemic, they planned to live off fishing and whatever food they could grow. But about two weeks into their quarantine, two damaged oil pipelines leaked thousands ofContinueContinue reading “‘Trapped again’: Quarantined Ecuador indigenous groups fight Amazon oil spill (Reuters)”
Escaping coronavirus in Ecuador’s Amazon (Al Jazeera’s The Take, Podcast)
QUITO, ECUADOR – In May, Al Jazeera interviewed me for their podcast The Take about how indigenous communities in Ecuador’s Amazon were forced to deal with the deadly COVID-19 pandemic, lock down, environmental disasters, and oil spills in their communities all at once. This is the podcast that resulted from that talk. (Photo Credit: JeronimoContinueContinue reading “Escaping coronavirus in Ecuador’s Amazon (Al Jazeera’s The Take, Podcast)”
The people cleaning up the oil spills of the Amazon (BBC Future Planet)
LAGO AGRIO, ECUADOR – Galo Rodriguez uses his machete to dig a hole near the small stream on his farm in the north-east of Ecuador, on the cusp of the Amazon rainforest. As he digs there is nothing unusual to be seen – but when he hits 32cm below the surface, the soil releases aContinueContinue reading “The people cleaning up the oil spills of the Amazon (BBC Future Planet)”
Life on the Amazon oil frontier: From exploration to ecotourism (Mongabay)
LLANCHAMA, ECUADOR – A long passenger boat floats abandoned outside Andres Machoa’s house, along the Tiputini River in Ecuador’s Amazon rainforest. The community bought the boat more than five years ago when the state-owned oil company, Petroamazonas, moved into the area and promised everyone stable jobs, including as water taxi conductors to transport their staffContinueContinue reading “Life on the Amazon oil frontier: From exploration to ecotourism (Mongabay)”
Historic win by Ecuador’s Waorani could re-shape extraction activities (Mongabay)
QUITO, ECUADOR — The indigenous Waorani community in Ecuador won a historic lawsuit against the government late last month, when a three-judge panel ruled that a consultation process conducted with the community in 2012 was inadequate and violated the community’s rights. The ruling immediately suspends any possibility of selling the community’s territory for the sakeContinueContinue reading “Historic win by Ecuador’s Waorani could re-shape extraction activities (Mongabay)”
Kimberley Michelle Brown 