The Achuar of the Pastaza River provide a different vision than the traditional top-down models of nature conservation, as laid out in the Achuar Life Plan. Put to paper in 2003, the Life Plan outlines the Achuar's own development model which includes a collective title for their ancestral territory, keeping extractive companies and roads out...
Let's say you're an oil company (because, you know, corporations are people, too). You have plans to drill in the Amazon rainforest. The government encourages you to go in, since it will get a share of your profits. There's just one problem: local indigenous communities are vehemently opposed, having seen nearby rivers polluted and people poisoned...
A new chapter has opened in the Peruvian Achuar effort to keep their Amazonian territory free of oil companies with the official launch of the #AdiosGeoPark campaign. An important tool in this new campaign is the short but powerful video produced by Vagabond Films in conjunction with filmmaker Charles Gay.
Who is going to clean up Peru's northern Amazon after decades of companies spilling oil and dumping billions of barrels of toxic production waters? Certainly not US company Occidental which ran the biggest concession, Lot 1-AB, until 2000, nor, it would seem, Petroperu, which ran the other major concession, Lot 8, until 1996 and operates the...
The U'wa consider themselves the guardians of their sacred ancestral homeland. In accordance with their natural laws, for centuries they have successfully defended their territory high in the Andean cloud forests.
"Today, I’m here sharing this with you but my people are once again mobilized. We are on Zizuma, the sacred mountain where many sources of water originate – lakes and rivers which bathe our territory and serve as an important source of water for Colombia."
"Berito taught Colombia's indigenous people and the world the importance of the globalization of resistance, how to defend the beloved Earth and how to fight against climate change."
"These are very serious accusations providing a political rationale for a violent paramilitary repression against the U'wa," said Andrew Miller, Advocacy Director at Amazon Watch. "The notion that the U'wa are associated with an armed group is absurd. They are actually radical pacifists by culture."
The U’wa, who call themselves the people who know how to think and speak, consider themselves the Guardians of Mother Nature, and large tracts of land inside their territory have become biological reserves for jaguars, spectacled bears, as well as a kaleidoscopic array of endemic plant and bird life that do not appear anywhere else on the planet.
There is no legitimate rationale for using violence against the U'wa. They are extreme pacifists by culture (considering the mere presence of weapons in their territory as violence) and have always been transparent about their actions. In this case, they are protecting an ecologically fragile and spiritually significant part of their own territory...
Taking direct action to defend their territory is a deadly serious proposition for Colombia's indigenous peoples. As such, the current mobilization of the U'wa Indigenous Guard to stop tourists from entering the sacred snow-capped mountain peak of El Cocuy has grabbed national and international attention.
In 2015, several indigenous peoples announced important advances in their decades-long struggles to defend their sacred homelands. The Achuar people of the Northern Peruvian Amazon and the U'wa people of the Colombian cloud forest both embody the power of grassroots resistance in the face of multi-billion dollar corporations.
What becomes of places like the Amazon Basin that don't have major oil reserves, but are vital for the regulation of the earth's climate, house 20% of the planet's fresh water, and one in ten of the world's known species?
"I've seen a publicity campaign saying that Pluspetrol is working hand-in-hand with the communities, that they protect the environment, our health, our children. It makes me ashamed for them to see this advertising they aren't living up to. They don't care. What's more, they won't admit all the bad things they have done. The people who don't live...
On one side of the table a group embodying integrity, legitimacy, humility. Across from them on the other? The personification of cynicism, obfuscation and arrogance. That was the scene in Bogotá yesterday where the U’wa people took their fight into a meeting with the Colombian government, calling on it to live up to previously negotiated...
The U'wa are an extraordinary people, paralleled by the amazing territory they call home. With this photo gallery – featuring images taken by the U'wa themselves – we hope to take you on a visual journey into the majestic lands they are defending. Not only are these breathtaking landscapes, each of these places holds a profound...
The Guardian | The indigenous U'wa people living in north-east Colombia have won what observers call an "historic" and "decisive" victory after state oil and gas company Ecopetrol dismantled a gas drilling site in their territories.
The Achuar and U'wa indigenous peoples have me in awe of the immense power of grassroots resistance in the face of multi-billion dollar corporations. Years after graduating from university, I find myself once again a student. Throughout my tenure at Amazon Watch, I have been honored to "informally apprentice" under our wise and humble indigenous...
The Guardian | Members of the indigenous Achuar tribe from the Peruvian Amazon have won an undisclosed sum from Occidental Petroleum in an out-of-court settlement after a long-running legal battle in the US courts.
"The parties are pleased to confirm a mutual settlement of the claims in the litigation. Under the settlement, the terms of which are confidential, Oxy will provide assistance for community development projects for the benefit of these five Achuar communities. All parties are satisfied with the resolution of this dispute."
The Guardian | "The U'wa have watched as their oil-rich neighboring territories have become centers of human rights abuses - perpetrated mostly by pro-government paramilitaries. To anyone who is watching, and particularly to the U'wa, the message is clear: Oil equals violence."
"The U'wa people are thankful for the solidarity from everyone who made possible this trip in favor of our territorial defense. We hope that, with your help, we will be successful in defending Mother Nature."
Upside Down World | Plans by Colombia's state-owned firm Ecopetrol to drill for gas in the north of the country have been suspended following opposition from the indigenous U'wa people.
After a tense 40-day stand-off over a bombed and paralyzed oil pipeline, the U'wa indigenous people came to an agreement late yesterday with the Colombian government, avoiding the possibility of a forceful incursion into their territory.
A forcible eviction of the U'wa from their encampment would certainly be a horrific event. The U'wa are pacifists by culture – while they are not willing to kill anyone for their beliefs, they are willing to die for them.
The situation for Colombia's U'wa people is both more hopeful and also more precarious than it has been in years. This could be a watershed moment – either allowing them to achieve several key demands or ending in tragedy.
Wall Street Journal | "The proposals they offered weren't close to what we were demanding," said Ms. Tegria, who said the tribe is preparing a formal statement for later Friday. "We will continue to not authorize the repair of the oil pipe."
Wall Street Journal | "The government (Ecopetrol) wanted to do what they always do after the rebels attack, they wanted to fix the pipeline and then maybe later clean up some of the spilled oil," said Aura Tegria, an U'wa spokeswoman. "Well, it's not going to happen that way anymore, and that's why we're not allowing in the repairmen."
Platts | "We are tired of the explosions on the pipeline that have ruined our ancestral lands, polluted our water and put our people in danger. We want it relocated," said Heber Tegria Uncaria, vice president and spokesman for the U'wa Association.
