Amazon tribe wins first victory against oil companies

PUYO: Ecuador’s Waorani indigenous tribe won their first victory on Friday against big oil companies in a ruling that blocks the companies’ entry onto ancestral Amazonian lands for oil exploration activities.

After two weeks of deliberations, a criminal court in Puyo, central Ecuador, accepted a Waorani bid for court protection in Pastaza province to stop an oil bidding process after the government moved to open up around 180,000 hectares for exploration.

The lands are protected under Ecuador’s constitution that establishes the “inalienable, unseizable and indivisible” rights of indigenous people “to maintain possession of their ancestral lands and obtain their free adjudication.” Crucially, however, the wealth in the subsoil is owned by the state.

The constitution also enshrines the need for prior consultation on any plans to exploit the underground resources, given the probable environmental and cultural impacts on tribal communities.

The state reached an agreement with the Waorani over oil exploration in 2012, but the tribe’s leaders say they were duped.

The judges ordered the government to conduct a new consultation, applying standards set by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, based in San Jose.

The ruling “has created a significant pre­cedent for the Amazon,” said Lina Maria Espi­­nosa, attorney for the plaintiffs, outside court.

“It has been demonstrated that there was no consultation and that the state violated the rights of this people, and therefore of other peoples.” The Waorani, who number around 4,800, also inhabit other Amazonian provinces.


https://www.dawn.com/news/1478934?fbclid=IwAR2oShQOoD-DhyA8UkgxLq1C3qLU7SzcIGmBO...

Jasin wrote on May 6^th, 2019 at 11:41pm:


It might translate into a right for our Indigenous groups on tribal lands to stop projects that might harm it etc.... I don't see that as a bad thing, given that I'm some 'right wing extremist'....         

Jasin wrote on May 6^th, 2019 at 11:41pm:



Well, me .. obviously. The tribe that one, all of there supporters, the anti-coal movement i imagine, environmentalists, those concerned with climate change, those that care about the rights of indigenous peoples etc.

...  not you though, it would seem. That's okay. You don't have to.

mothra wrote on May 6^th, 2019 at 11:17pm:



Well it's a pity it doesn't happen here to put a stop to the insidious creep of CSG exploration & fracking all over our country.

The product of which is all exported for SFA a gigalitre .....

now our stupid pollies are going to allow these same foreign companies to build a "gas" import facility so we can buy our own gas back at inflated prices.  yeah I'm angry about that too 

Adani is but a small part of the expansion in the Galilee basin.

There's a bigger mine planned right next door by Waratah Coal(aka Minerology aka Clive Palmer) in cohorts with a Chinese company ....

funnily enough its called the China First Project ...

so all the electioneering by Palmer about the 2 majors selling off Australia & coal to the CHINESE is just hypocritical bs ....

as he's still in bed with them.

Oh and Gina Hancock has another one in that area with GVK Hancocks Alpha project.

We can see the result of open cut coal mining .... but you don't see the damage of Coal Seam GAS & HYDRAULIC FRACKING until it's too late.

It threatens vast underground aquifers e.g. the Great Artesian Basin.

But since we have both why can't we use our own resources for cheap power?

There's still plenty for export and royalties.