When Indigenous people fight to defend and enforce their land rights, they are protecting their future- and ours.
This summer, a court in Ecuador issued a ruling with profound implications for the urgent fight to save the imperiled Amazon rainforest. The decision effectively blocked a planned government oil auction that threatened half-a-million acres of some of the world’s most biodiverse primary rainforest.
The broad outlines of the situation are sadly familiar to similar cases found throughout the Amazon region: In pursuit of foreign investment, the government sought to partner with foreign firms to develop large swaths of ecologically fragile rainforest. As is often the case, these forests were the ancestral lands of Indigenous inhabitants who were not informed about—and did not approve—the arrival of industry on their territory.\
To read the full article on Citizen Truth, click here.
