Indigenous guardians successfully keep extractives out of Ecuador’s Amazon forests

PAKAYAKU TERRITORY, Ecuador — Deep in the heart of Ecuador’s Amazon, where the Bobonaza River winds through ancient forests in Pastaza province, Sacha Gayas spreads out a hand-drawn map across her wooden kitchen table. Her fingers, stained with the rich earth of her homeland, trace the boundaries of 71,000 hectares (175,000 acres) of lands that her people have silently guarded for generations. “We are the hidden people,” she tells Mongabay. Gayas, 50, has spent decades defending what she and other Kichwa people of the Pakayaku community say outsiders cannot see or understand. For decades, the community living in lush Amazonian rainforests has successfully kept unsustainable logging, mining and oil extraction activities out of these lands while preserving their cultural traditions and ecological knowledge. In July, Mongabay visited the community to see the story of their resistance and conservation of vast forests, which few have been allowed to witness firsthand. Deep in Ecuador’s Amazon, where the Bobonaza River winds through ancient forests in Pastaza province. Image by Brandi Morin. Standing just 1.5 meters (5 feet) tall, Gayas commands the attention of those around her with every word. Her shoulder-length black hair gleams with the fresh application of wituk, a natural dye harvested from fruit plants that grow in the community’s backyards. Across her face, intricate designs painted in the same wituk ink create bold geometric patterns that will remain for a week — a canvas showing her identity as a guardian of this remote community. Seated at her wooden kitchen table in…This article was originally published on Mongabay