Deep in the southeastern Ecuadorian province of Zamora-Chinchipe, lush green trees shoot up between meandering rivers in the hot and humid rainforest. A pure paradise for biodiversity with thousands of plants and hundreds of insects and animals, such as the duck tapir and the spectacled bear. The rainforest is also home to the Shuar people, who have lived in the Amazon for hundreds of years, and have fought for decades to preserve the forest’s necessary resources. Until the 1950s, the Shuar lived scattered across the jungle without a permanent home. Gradually, more townspeople became aware of nature’s rich resources, which led to the Shuar having less space to live in. To avoid losing the land, they settled in so-called centros, which are permanent communities in the jungle. One of these communities was named Tiwi Nunka, named after the first Shuar who settled in the area, which translated into Norwegian means “Tiwi’s territory”. Since then, the indigenous people of Tiwi Nunka have been fighting to protect their 5,500 hectares of land from mining and deforestation. Now, decades of struggle have finally paid off. In July, Ecuador’s Ministry of Environment, Water and Ecology decided that Tiwi Nunka should be a protected area that the Shuar people could manage freely. This means that today it is the Shuar who have the exclusive right to use the area’s resources and it is also protected against exploitation by deforestation and mining companies. It is a great victory for the 33 families in Tiwi Nunka who depend on the jungle’s water, food and medicine. – Our elders left us a legacy of taking care of nature, and therefore we want to preserve the water, the plants and everything that has life in the forest, said Milton Asamat, the leader of the Shuar community in El Kiim, which includes Tiwi Nunka, to the medium Mongabay . A victory for nature The fight for Tiwi Nunka’s protection gained serious momentum in 2005, when the organization Nature and Culture International became aware of the matter. The organisation, which works to protect indigenous peoples’ culture and biodiversity, demanded that Tiwi Nunka’s combined 55 square kilometer area live up to its name and effectively be a Shuar-only territory. That decision finally came earlier this year. – It is a great, historic victory for the Shuar community, explains Trotsky Riera, who is the project coordinator for Ecuador at Nature and Culture International and who works with the indigenous people of Tiwi Nunka. – No one else will be able to invade the area in the future. It not only ensures the Shuar’s history and cultural connection to the area, but also biological diversity in Tiwi Nunka, he says. It is not only the Shuar who can breathe a sigh of relief. The rest of life in the rainforest has also been given an important lifeline. Trotsky Riera explains that Tiwi Nunka is located between two large, protective national parks, which together can now function as a large protected natural area with extended territories for rainforest wildlife. Indigenous people take care of nature It is not an isolated case that natural areas such as Tiwi Nunka are in better hands with the indigenous people. It is estimated that at least one third of the earth’s land area belongs to indigenous peoples. In those areas, 80 percent of the world’s remaining biological diversity is included in forests, which have been shown to thrive far better under the management of indigenous peoples. Surveys show that in the areas where indigenous people have full management of nature, 91 per cent of the ecosystems are preserved under good conditions. In Bolivia, Colombia and Brazil, researchers concluded that lands managed by indigenous people had 73 percent less CO2 emissions than lands managed by others. The forests are to a greater extent left standing in the areas where indigenous people have the rights to the land. This is largely due to the indigenous people’s way of life, where nature is the core of society and where the culture is based on techniques that are sustainable and protect nature’s resources. Trotsky Riera from Nature and Culture International therefore emphasizes that it is crucial for the world’s biological diversity that more indigenous peoples gain full control over their lands. – The indigenous people’s areas are under increasing pressure from development projects such as oil or mining. It is a problem because it turns out in retrospect that it will be impossible to achieve the Sustainability Goal on the conservation of biological diversity without the help of indigenous people, he says.
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In Ecuador, indigenous peoples are winning decades-long battles to protect rainforests
