Amazon rainforest is threatened by the axing of ministries, say indigenous Ecuadorians

Ecuador places Environment Ministry under Energy and Mines

Ecuador increases oil drilling in Amazon

Indigenous groups claim that the move hurts them and rainforest

By Dan Collyns

Noboa announced that in July, more than a half dozen ministries would be combined. The number of ministries will drop from 20 to 14. This is an effort to reduce public spending.

The Ministry of Women and Human Rights has also been folded into the Ministry of Government. Approximately 5,000 employees were laid off.

Carolina Jaramillo, spokesperson for the government, stated that efficiency was the goal.

She said that the national government had set itself a goal to have an efficient state which provides citizens with quality public services.

Environmentalists and indigenous peoples say Ecuador needs independent ministers to protect human rights and fragile Amazonian and Andean eco-systems from formal and illegal mining and oil drilling, as well as other damaging forms of development that cause deforestation.

Nemonte Nenquimo is an activist who leads the Waorani tribe. She expressed her alarm. "How can it be that the Ministry of Environment vanishes overnight and suddenly oil and mining interests take over?" She asked.

In the Amazon rainforest, Waoranis have won court victories in order to protect their ancestral lands from oil companies.

"It is a strategic decision to allow future exploitation for national development or global markets." She said that they claim to protect the rainforest but, in reality, they allow oil drilling and mining.

Requests for comments from the government were not answered.

OIL ECONOMY

Ecuador is aiming to increase oil drilling in Amazon despite court rulings, and a referendum in August 2023 that limits drilling in the Yasuni National Park.

Two of the last indigenous communities to live in voluntary isolation are the Waorani, Tagaeri, and Taromenane.

More than 10,000,000 people, or almost 60% of the electorate, voted in favor of keeping crude oil in the ground at the Yasuni "43-ITT" oil block.

Noboa supported the proposal to not drill in that area when he was a presidential candidate.

Noboa, who is now the president of Ecuador after winning his full term in may, appears to have done a U-turn and insists that Ecuador can't afford to not exploit its natural resource. The economy of Ecuador is heavily dependent on oil exports.

Noboa wants to increase oil production, and Ecuador is expecting foreign oil companies will invest $42 billion over the next 5 years in this sector.

How can those who are promoting extractivism subordinate the organization responsible for curbing it? Who will protect the rights of the nature when they are in the way mining or oil interests? In a recent statement, YASunidos - a local civil group that pushed the Yasuni election - asked: "Who will protect nature when it gets in the way of mining or oil interests?"

MINE EXPANSION

Ecuador also wants to increase mining because of the rising prices for minerals, especially gold, which is at record highs.

In 2025, analysts predict that mining in Ecuador will generate $4 billion in export revenue annually and could replace bananas as Ecuador's third largest export.

Last year, Ecuador suffered an economic downturn caused by electricity shortages due to the drought and budget restrictions that hindered normal business operations and investment.

A report by the International Monetary Fund last month recommended that Ecuador implement structural reforms in order to attract private investments into what it called sectors of high potential such as mining, hydrocarbons, and energy.

The A'i Cofan, along with Waorani and other Indigenous peoples, won an important victory in court to stop gold mining on their land.

Alex Lucitante is an A'i Cofan leader, and Goldman Environmental Prize-winning winner. He called the government's latest move "a direct attack on Indigenous Peoples and all of our struggles to defend our territory."

He said, "This is not an isolated decision. It's part a larger strategy."

He cited the Protected Areas and Local Development Law that was recently passed, which he described as an attempt to exclude Indigenous Peoples from the process of consultation involving new developments projects.

"These actions are a step backwards that is devastating." "They threaten to undermine all we have achieved and violate our rights to self-determination," Lucitante stated.

(source: Reuters)