Oil-Drilling Impacts Ecuadorian Indigenous Peoples: Part One

I'm working on several large-scale Natural Resource Damage Assessments (NRDAs), both as a Principal Investigator (PI) and as an expert consultant. These are big projects mandated by the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) in which a site is being cleaned up after a major toxic spill or disaster. An example that most people are familiar with is the Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska in 1989. As part of this process, there is a remediation step whereby natural resources are theoretically brought back to their state prior to the spill or disaster. Tied into this component are the cultural uses various groups (in the US, this would include Native Americans) had concerning those natural resources that have been damaged (cultural uses of natural resources). In some cases, however, not only can the natural resource not be restored, but the cultural uses also cannot be restored (since the natural resources are permanently damaged). This latter type of case is extremely sad, as not only are the natural resources permanently damaged, but in some cases the indigenous peoples who utilized those resources are also permanently impacted (in terms of loss to cultural traditions, subsistence resources, religious sites, health concerns, etc.). Below are some highlights of one such case in Ecuador concerning oil drilling and indigenous peoples.

Impacted Indigenous Peoples

The A’ingae, or Cofan people, have lived between the Aguarico and Guamués rivers for centuries, long before the foundation of the Republics of Ecuador and Colombia, from the Azuela river up to the middle section of the Aguarico basin, and up to present-day Puerto Asís. The Cofan territory was next to the communities of the Siona and Tetetes nations. Long ago, the Cofan people amounted to 15,000 inhabitants (Ingita Gi A'indeccu'fa, 2002), and now, according to the information of the Federation of the Cofan Nation of Ecuador, there are only 162 families with a total of 849 people.

According to CODENPE (Consejo de Desarrollo de las Nacionalidades y Pueblos del Ecuador – Council for the Development of Ecuador’s Peoples and Nations), Ecuador’s COFAN Nation is now in the province of Sucumbios, on the Aguarico river and in the middle section of the Dureno and Cuyabeno river basins; the main settlements are Dovino, Dureno, Sinangüe, Chandia Na’en and Zábalo.

The ancestral territory of the Secoya Nation was located among the Yasuní, Tiputini, Teteye, Eno, Shushufindi, Cuyabeno, Putilla (Baile Playa), Zábalo, Juanillas, Pafcuya, Castaña, Cocaya, Rio Guabillo, Lagartococha, Imuya, Zancudo, and Huajoya “Santa María” Siecoya rivers, all of them main tributaries of the Aguarico river. According to its own censuses, this nation is made up of 65 families (260 people).

The ancestral territory of the Siona Nation, like the rest of Amazonian cultures and peoples, had no fixed borders, although they did establish boundaries using rivers and streams as units of reference. Siona (which means “toward the vegetable garden”) is in the north eastern Amazonian region; its original language is Paico’ca, which belongs to the Western Tucano linguistic family. Originally, Ecuador's Sionas shared traditions with and were related to Colombia’s Sionas, Makaguaje and Coreguaje, and to Peru’s Secoya and Angotero. They were known as the “Encabellados” (hairy people) for their long hair; they were also called “Pioje” by 19th-century explorers.

Since time immemorial, the Wuaraorani Nation has inhabited the right bank of the river Napo and the left bank of the river Curaray, located in the Concession’s southern area. Today, this nation’s territories are located in three provinces of Amazonia: the Province of Orellana (district of Orellana, parish of Dayuma, the district of Aguarico, parishes of Tiputini, Yansuní, and Santa María de Huiririma) the Province of Pastaza (district of Arajuno, parish of Curaray); and the Province of the Napo (district of Tena, parish of Chontapunta). According to the Ministry of Education and Culture5, there are approximately 3,000 inhabitants today; however, it is difficult to be completely sure about figures, given that several descending tribes or branches of this people are known as tribes with whom no contact has been made, or who live in voluntary isolation. The Huaraorani are one of the hardest peoples to contact. They are called "Amazonia’s warriors,” for they continually fight to preserve their independence and their territory, although once subdued by oil companies and missionaries they were easily persuaded by gifts.

Impacts from Oil Drilling

Life for the Ecuadorian indigenous peoples depends on three things: territory, food and cultural traditions.

Initiation of oil operations forced these peoples to migrate from their ancestral lands, for fear of the cusmas (the Cofans’ name for the mestizo and white people) and also due to the impacts they suffered as a consequence of the alteration of the ecosystem, which affected fishing and hunting activities in the areas near the oil production facilities. Until the end of the ‘60s, the Cofan (were) settled where the Teteye and Orienco rivers flowed into the Aguarico river. According to Prof. Silvio Chapal, “we, the Cofan, used to live with our families in the estuary of rivers Teteye and Orienco. Suddenly, strangers began to arrive in our lands; they began to fell the forests and some days later the water flowing in the river became totally black, fish started to die and also the animals drinking that water died. This is why the Cofan living in the estuary of rivers Teteye and Orienco had no choice but to leave that place and move to the present-day Cofan Dureno District." Testimonies like this can be found from every surveyed nation.

Several Cofan families grouped together in the present-day Cofan Dureno District, to escape the impact(s) of oil-related activities. In the beginning of the ‘70s, Texpet began to drill the Dureno 01 well, which was within the Cofan Dureno District. Upon seeing that their land was being affected once again, the Cofan initiated procedures to obtain from the State the legal certification of ownership of at least part of their territory, so that by 1974 they would own the title deed for the Cofan Dureno District, and their land would be safe. A few years later, Texpet started drilling Guanta’s wells; one of those wells, Guanta 08, was located in the very heart of the Cofan Dureno District. Today, the Cofan Dureno District, the heart of the Cofan Nation, is surrounded by tens of oil wells and hundreds of newly arrived farmers. The resultant scarcity of territory necessary for this nation’s survival led the elders to conquer other lands. This is why, in the late ‘90s they finally migrated in order to create a district in the “Zábalo” area, more than 100 km away from the Cofan Dureno District. This new territory had ancestrally belonged to the Secoya Nation, but luckily these two nations agreed to share the territory.

The Siona and the Secoya from another region of the Concession underwent the same thing. Full of sadness, the Secoya elders claim that the most important thing they have lost in the last four decades was "their Freedom". Mr. Celestino Piaguaje agrees. He looks back and says “our people used to be free, we would roam the jungle without anyone preventing us, we were free … today we are free no more, we have but a few hectares of land, our people cannot grow because we have no land.” All the leaders agree that today farmers and oil companies are the main threat to these peoples’ existence; and all of them also agree that it was Texaco (the name by which they know it) that initially “invaded” their territories. The three surviving peoples inhabiting the northern region of the Concession live surrounded by oil infrastructure, and in lots considered too small compared to the territory they had ancestrally occupied. The southern region of the Concession is inhabited by the Huaraorani, who used to occupy land from the right bank of the Napo river up to the left bank of the Curaray river. In the early ‘70s, the Huaraorani began to feel the devastation brought about by oil-related activities: first the opening of paths, then the drilling of exploratory wells, and finally the full development of all oil-related activities that implied creating roads, building pumping stations, fitting flares, and bringing hundreds of workers. The final impact led to the reduction of the vast territory inhabited by the Huaraorani to a reservation called the “protected area”.

To be continued...

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