Indigenous Cofanes Occupy Oil Well in Amazonian Wildlife Reserve
to Stop Illegal Drilling by Ecuador's National Oil Company
Quito, November 1, 1993
On Thursday, October 28, 1993, forty indigenous Cofan men, women,
and children occupied and temporarily stopped drilling activities
at Paujil, an exploratory oil well located in Cofan territory
(Comunidad de Zabalo) and the Cuaybeno Wildlife Reserve. The well
is operated by the Ecuadorian national oil company, Petroecuador.
The Cofanes hiked through swampy terrain to reach the remote will
site. Wearing traditional kusma tunics and dresses, their faces
and lance tips painted red, the Cofanes ordered startled oil
workers to shut down the drill rig, and to sit down and hear their
concerns.
Within hours, oil company representatives and high-level military
officials arrived by helicopter and, promising to begin serious
negotiations the following morning, pleaded with the Cofanes to
allow work to continue during the discussions.
On Friday, the Cofanes and their village president Randy Borman,
son of American missionaries, who was born inthe Amazon and has
lived with the Cofanes all his life, made three basic demands--
that Petroecuador agree not to initiate additional exploratory or
production activities in the area without written permission from
the Cofanes; that the company provide the community free access to
all work sites and complete information relating to possible
environmental and socio-cultural impacts of its actitvities; and
that they finance the purchase of solar panels to provide
electricity for the Cofan village of Zabalo.
After five hours of difficult negotiations, a tentative agreement
was reached, but authorization to sign the pact was denied by
officials in the Ecuadorian capital, Quito, who communicated with
their functionaries by radio. Instead, Petroecuador offered to
purchase $10,000 worth of solar panels for the Cofanes, and denied
the Cofanes the right to approve future projects, participate in
environmental monitoring, or gain access to environmental
information. The Cofnaes unanimously refused to be bought off,
and stated that unless someone with sufficient authority to accede
to their demands comes to their village to continue the
duscussions, they will have no alternative other than to once
again paralyze the project. Discussions are scheduled to resume
today.
This is not the first time that the Cofanes have challenged oil
development in the area. Earlier this year, Cofanes reportedly
burned a wooden drill site belonging to Petroecuador, forcing the
company to abandon the site. The Cofanes feel compelled to take
strong measures because of Petroecuador's consistent disregard of
Ecuadorian environmental regulations and Cofan land rights. The
legality of the Petroecuador's activities in the area have also
been repeatedly challenged by a broad spectrum of national and
international environmental groups, ecotourism operators, and even
government officials.
In July, the Ecuadorian national forestry agency, INEFAN, concened
about environmental impacts of oil development in the Cuyabeno
Reserve, halted the project. In August, Ecuadorian President
Bixto Duran Ballen personally authorized the resumption of
drilling activities. Pressured, INEFAN then reversed its
decision.
The Cofanes, whose population has been reduced to less than 700
people, understand the devastating impact that petroleum
development can have on their land, natural resources and culture.
Huge tracts of their traditional territory have been polluted,
invaded by settlers, and deforested as a result of oil extraction
activities by Texaco in the 1970's and 1980's. The Cofan are
determined to survive as a people by protecting one of the last
parcels of their territory, located within Cuyabeno Wildlife
Reserve, in a tropical forest that is increasingly popular with
ecotourists and scientists. The Cofanes of Zabalo have
established their own rapidly growing ecotourism business and
serve as unpaid park guards. They have demonstrated that they are
the most capable and willing to manage and protect the area, which
was recently found by an international scientific team to contain
the highest known diversity of tree species per hectare of any
tropical rainforest.
For more information: Contact Judith Kimerling (tel 593-2-550738
or fax 593-2-568914) or Andrew Drumm
of the Agrupacion para la Defensa del Cuyabeno, Casilla 17-21-508
, Quito, Ecuador (tel:593-2-547885); or Glen Switkes of the
Rainforest Action Network (tel. in Ecuador: 593-2-546994 or fax:
593-2-547516. In U.S.: (415) 398-4404). The Agrupacion is a
coalition of indigenous, human rights, environmental ecotourism
and scientific institutions and individuals that are working
together to protect the Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve in Amazonian
Ecuador.