"Oil-free Amazon," the indigenous demand on the eve of the 5th ACTO Amazon Summit

Valeria López Peña

Madrid (EFEverde).- Indigenous organizations from Ecuador, Brazil, and Colombia are demanding that oil be left underground in territories such as Yasuní (Ecuador) and, in view of the upcoming Amazon Summit of the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO), to be held this Friday in Bogotá, that the Amazon be declared the world's first no-go zone for fossil fuel exploration and exploitation.

The summit will follow the Amazon Regional Meeting, a week of presentations and roundtable discussions with representatives of indigenous peoples, Afro-descendants, civil society, scientists, and academics, where real commitments to addressing the region's socio-environmental crisis were demanded.

Likewise, the Waorani nationality, in collaboration with several organizations, requested, in a public letter, that the Yasuní case be recognized "as an example of the structural obstacles to a just energy transition, which require multilateral responses and monitoring mechanisms" in the balance of accounts of the Belém Declaration, signed by ACTO in 2023.

The Yasuní case and the failure to comply with the popular consultation

The slogan "leave fossil fuels in the ground" emerged with the 2023 referendum in Ecuador, when the "yes" vote to halt the exploitation of Block 43 in the Yasuní National Park won , forcing the closure of operations within a maximum period of one year.

However, the government created a five-year decommissioning plan, which "is also not being followed, since in two years only 10 of the 247 active wells have been closed," denounces the Waorani Nationality of Ecuador (NAWE). According to the Closure Plan submitted by the Yasuní Popular Will Execution Committee-ITT to the Constitutional Court in August 2024, at least 10 wells were to be closed that same year, and 48 wells per year starting in 2025.

For Juan Bay, President of NAWE, “Amazonian presidents are not listening to the Indigenous peoples who have inhabited and protected the Amazon since ancient times. The Waorani people have taken a very important step in eliminating fossil fuels in the Yasuní region. We have reached a historic milestone, but the State is not complying,” he stated in his speech at the Amazon Regional Meeting.

Furthermore, this is amidst a controversial Protected Areas Law in Ecuador, which separates the management of these areas from the Ministry of the Environment and has been criticized by environmentalists for possible privatization and militarization there.

Ecuador's new protected areas law under scrutiny for militarization and indigenous exclusion.

Demands on the way to COP30

Oscar Daza, secretary general of OPIAC, points out that oil activity in the Yasuní region is taking place in areas where there are isolation agreements with the Tagaeri and Taromenane. Therefore, he calls for prioritizing closures in their territories and for the creation of a commission to abandon oil.

Such an energy transition "must be citizen-led and improve the rights of people," says Elcio Manchineri, general coordinator of COIAB, since "the Amazon cannot continue to be a sacrifice zone."

Furthermore, because "development is not contrary to life, what we are asking for are plans that respect it," declared Camilo Huanomi, Territorial Leader of CONFENIAE, during his participation in the Amazon Regional Meeting. He also emphasized collaboration "because the problems of the Amazon have consequences for other countries in the region, not just Ecuador."

For example, in Peru , exploration was proposed in Block 64 (Loreto) under the lands of the Chapra, Wampis, and Achuar nations, but a tender was not formalized. In Colombia , 28% of the Amazon (14 million hectares) is under concession for oil and gas blocks, concentrated mainly in Putumayo, where 250 active wells account for 70% of Amazonian hydrocarbon production , according to a recent report by Earth Insight and OPIAC.

Thus, the central demand of indigenous leaders is that the ACTO declare the Amazon as the world's first exclusion zone for the exploration and exploitation of fossil fuels . EFEverde

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