Nemonte Nenquimo
Nemonte Nenquimo, an indigenous leader from the Ecuadorian Amazon, was one of the winners of the Goldman Environmental Prize of 2020 for her success in protecting 500,000 acres of rainforest from oil extraction. Nenquimo, also winner of of the 2020 United Nations Environment Programme’s Champions of the Earth award for Inspiration and Action, is a member of the Waorani indigenous community. She says she is of “warrior blood” and she has shown the world what a warrior like her can achieve. Not by engaging in war, but by fighting a fight on a different level: by filing a lawsuit. In February 2019, the Waorani filed suit against the Ecuadorian government, claiming officials failed to consult with them before offering huge parts of the Amazon rainforest to oil companies. The historic landmark ruling of April 2019 protects 500,000 acres of Waorani territory in the rainforest from exploitation and immediate destruction. The decision has brought hope to other indigenous communities (an estimated one million indigenous people, representing more than 400 different communities live in the forest) who have been challenged by central governments for generations over their livelihoods, land rights and self-determination.
UNEP (UN Environment Programme) Executive Director Inger Andersen said Nenquimo’s lawsuit win was a seminal moment for indigenous communities in the Amazon basin. “At least a quarter of the world’s land area is owned, managed, used or occupied by indigenous peoples and local communities,” she said. “Their contribution is essential to halt degradation of these ecosystems. Inclusion of indigenous communities in policy-making and supporting environmental defenders like Nemonte Nenquimo are at the heart of UNEP’s efforts to protect the environment.”
Besides protecting the Amazon forest, Nenquimo is also fighting for other rights for indigenous communities. Her organization, the Coordinating Council of the Waorani Nationality of Ecuador-Pastaza, works with indigenous non-profit Ceibo Alliance (Alianza Ceibo), which Nenquimo co-founded in 2014. The alliance brings together four different indigenous nations – the A'i Kofan, the Siekopai, the Siona and the Waorani to confront threats to their rainforest territories and cultural survival. Ceibo Alliance also builds sustainable indigenous-led alternatives for the protection of their lands and livelihoods by improving access to education, involving young people in leadership, promoting solar energy, and creating economic opportunities for women. “I grew up surrounded by the songs of the wise women of my community who said the green forest that we see today is there because our ancestors protected it,” said Nenquimo. “As indigenous people we must unite in a single objective: that we demand that they respect us. The Amazon is our home and it is not for sale.”
If you look at the history of Ecuador´s rainforest you can see that Nenquimo´s fight shouldn’t have started anytime later. Since the 1960s, oil exploration, logging, and road building have had a disastrous impact on Ecuador’s primary rainforests, which now cover less than 15% of the country’s land mass. Extractive industries have increasingly driven deforestation, human rights abuses, public health crises (including spikes in rates of cancer, birth defects, and miscarriages), and negative impacts on indigenous peoples’ territories and cultures. For decades, oil companies have dumped waste into local rivers and contaminated land, while displacing indigenous people from their land. Today, 80% of the Waorani population currently lives on one-tenth of its original ancestral lands. In 2018, Ecuador’s Minister of Hydrocarbons announced an auction of 16 new oil concessions, covering seven million acres of primary Amazon forest, in efforts to attract investment by multinational oil companies, including Exxon and Shell. The concessions were located on the titled land of Waorani, Shuar, Achuar, Kichwa, Shiwiar, Andoa, and Sápara nations—in direct violation of indigenous rights. One area overlaps almost entirely with Waorani territory. Nenquimo decided she had to take on a leadership role and After the Ecuadorian government announced the land auctions, Nenquimo assumed a leadership role and began organizing Waorani communities. She held regionwide assemblies and interviews with village leaders, helped her people launch a digital campaign targeting potential investors with the slogan “Our Rainforest is Not for Sale,” and spearheaded a petition to the oil industry and Ecuadorian government that was signed by 378,000 people from around the world. At the same time, Nenquimo proactively helped communities maintain their independence from oil company handouts by installing rainwater harvesting systems and solar panels and supporting a woman-led organic cacao and chocolate production business. Nenquimo also secured training for Waorani youth to be filmmakers and document their work, publishing powerful images and videos for the campaign, including aerial drone footage of the rainforest and Waorani territory.
Nenquimo also helped establish Ceibo Alliance´s sister organization, Amazon Frontlines, that focuses on indigenous self-determination and environmental stewardship. The organization received early support from the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation. In partnership with indigenous and environmental organizations, the Amazon Frontlines works to build indigenous capacity and autonomy to protect the Amazon’s ecological systems and address climate issues. The actor nominated her for Time magazine’s list of the world’s 100 Most Influential People of 2020. “It motivates me that the world is recognizing our collective struggle, and the struggle of indigenous peoples in many countries,” she said. “Thanks to this international recognition, we want to keep fighting.”
“The river, the food, the animals, the medicinal plants. We are protecting all this because the Amazon is our only home.”
This international recognition is very much needed. In 2020, the region had the worst cycle of forest fires in a generation, with more than 76,000 blazes burning across the Amazon basin over the dry months of June, July and August. “If we allow the Amazon to be destroyed little by little, of course, that affects us as indigenous peoples, but it will also affect everyone because of climate change,” said Nenquimo. “The struggle we do is for all humanity because we all live connected to the land.”
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