In the Napo province of the Ecuadorian Amazon, the Kichwa community of Capirona is using music to tell the world about their struggle to protect their rivers, territory, and way of life.
Decades ago, Capirona became one of the first two ecotourism communities in the region. It remains a place of enormous beauty, nestled between the Puní and Shalkana rivers. For generations, the Puní River has provided the community with water, food, and life.
Gold mining has torn through the Napo region – and Capirona has not been spared. Upstream, dozens of mining sites use mercury to extract gold from the river, driven by skyrocketing global prices. Miners keep installing more dredges. Both of Capirona’s rivers are now poisoned. Life has changed significantly, as Alicia, a local leader, explains: “I do not like food from other places. I love our fish. I want to wash our clothes in the river and get them clean. That is not possible anymore. I want my kids to swim as we always did, but they cannot. Life has gotten sad.”
What is happening in Capirona is happening across the entire Amazon Basin. Hundreds of Indigenous communities face the same assault – illegal economies pushing deeper into their territories, contaminating rivers, destroying forests, and threatening everything they have built and protected.
Turning resistance into music
Capirona is responding by doing what Indigenous communities across the Amazon have done for generations – organizing collectively, keeping their culture and connection to their territory alive, strengthening local economies, and finding new ways to make their voices heard. Today, they are resisting through music and sharing it with the world.
Amazon Watch first heard their song titled “Capirona” earlier this year, during a solidarity delegation with the Indigenous Federation of the Napo. Leaders from different communities described how gold mining has upended their lives, sharing data revealing toxic metal levels in fish and human hair, evidence of a health crisis whose full extent is only beginning to come into focus.
The performance deeply moved everyone present. Tears were shed as those who listened understood the deep sorrow as well as the fierce commitment to changing the situation. We immediately began discussing how to produce the song and a music video that could share Capirona’s story more widely.
Over the last few months, the Mullu communications collective worked with the Capirona community and Kichwa singer Kimberly Silva to record the song and bring it to life on screen.
The community debuted the song at the Capirona Raymi festival on August 28 and 29, before the full community and leaders from other communities and federations. Organizers held the festival to stimulate the local economy. Local leader Galo Villamil says: “We cannot afford to abandon our struggle. For now, we need clean water, but we will keep fighting to heal the rivers and secure alternative livelihoods for our community.”
Solidarity means supporting Capirona’s resistance
Through our Stop Amazon Crime campaign, Amazon Watch stands in solidarity with Capirona and other Indigenous communities confronting the expansion of illegal economies across the Amazon.
Today, one of Capirona’s most urgent needs is access to water. The community is calling on Ecuadorian authorities to guarantee an immediate supply of safe and sufficient water for every family and to provide a permanent solution that ensures access to clean drinking water. To address this urgent need, Amazon Watch is supporting the installation of water tanks at every family’s home, providing access to clean water.
Capirona is also calling on the Ecuadorian government to work alongside affected Indigenous organizations to eradicate illegal mining from their ancestral rivers, repair the environmental damage that mining has caused, and support alternative economies that allow communities to thrive while protecting their territories.
These demands are inseparable – access to clean water keeps families rooted in their territory, ending illegal mining protects the rivers they depend on, and environmental reparations restore what extraction has destroyed. Together, they build the foundation for community-led economies that can offer real alternatives to the illegal activities advancing deeper into the Amazon every day.
The world must stop this crisis
Capirona’s story shows how record gold prices are fueling a human rights and environmental crisis across the Amazon. Although local resilience and resistance are crucial, gold markets in the United Kingdom, India, the United States, Switzerland, Canada, and Arab countries ultimately create the demand that drives the destruction of the Amazon.
The international community must establish measures to trace Amazonian gold and stop the flow of mercury to mining sites. The upcoming United Nations conference on Transnational Organized Crime in Vienna will provide a crucial opportunity to call on the international community to fulfill its responsibilities.
By listening to and sharing Capirona’s song, we can help more people understand what is happening to the community and why their struggle matters. We can amplify the voices of the people defending their rivers and forests every day and remind decision-makers that Capirona does not stand alone.
Listen, share, and amplify Capirona’s resistance.
