Why does the contemporary Western lifestyle influence the rise in mental illness and depression? Why is our separation from Nature detrimentally affecting human health and consciousness? Our growing distance from Nature doesn’t serve the Earth or us. It is clear there is an increasing need for humanity to reconnect with Nature and why it is crucial that western society needs to become more ecologically sustainable within the means of the Earth’s natural limits.
Carlita is an independent environmental journalist and project developer who provides information overlooked by mainstream journalism funded by political agendas, since Carlita has worked closely with indigenous groups in Latin America for the last fifteen years.
My new book is now published and available here in Paperback and Kindle
This book provides a fresh perspective on the exponential rise in depression and suicide in modern western society. It’s an alternative book for alternative people who have tried conventional medicine or who aren’t interested in treating depression with allopathic options, and who are open to trying other options. Scientists have studied depression is in fact a normal response to a global environmental destruction, with growing scientific peer reviewed papers that confirm our degrading environment affects our mental health. There is an urgent need for humanity to reconnect with nature and change society to become more environmentally friendly. The author offers advice on how to manage depression better with nutritional advice and controversial health hacks, recommended lifestyle changes including learning the art of living after surviving grief, deep trauma, and loss.
The aim is to help the reader see their depression as a calling to look within, connect with their truer inner being and begin to nurture themselves spiritually, mentally and emotionally. Furthermore, this book invites the reader to consider their own place in human evolution and redefine their lost purpose to one that is more aligned to Ecology than to Western Materialism, to become self-empowered, not a victim of depression. We look at talk therapies and radical new alternative therapies for managing depression in a challenging world.
Contents-
Introduction
Poem-Faithful Black Dog
Chapter One- I am Not my Story
Poem-The Exiled Dissidents
Chapter Two-Corporate devolution vs Ecology
Poem-My Friend, My Shadow
Chapter Three-A Brief History of Depression
Poem-The Thief
Chapter Four- The Art of Living
Poem-The Heart’s Compass
Chapter Five- Gluten Free Living, Health the Gut, Heal the Mind
Poem-Patented Flower in a Planet Sized Laboratory
Chapter Six- Health Hacks to Avoid Inflammation and Depression
Poem-Beat Your Drum
Chapter Seven- A Look at Different Talk Therapies
Poem-Illusions of Polarities
Chapter Eight- The Therapeutic Benefits of Entheogens and CBD oil
Poem–Merging Galaxies
Chapter Nine- The Noosphere, Consciousness and Biosphere
Carlita is an independent environmental journalist and project developer who provides information overlooked by mainstream journalism funded by political agendas, since Carlita has worked closely with indigenous groups in Latin America for the last fifteen years.
After a state of emergency was declared in Ecuador, with two weeks of intense demonstrations in Quito, Ecuador’s capital, Ecuadorian protestors have released ten police and thirty journalists, who were reportedly taken hostage by activist groups, in the midst of violent outbreaks during demonstrations against IMF austerity pressures on the Ecuadorian government, namely the reason why oil subsidies were being withdrawn,
Before being liberated later that evening, some of the police officers were made to carry the coffin of a protestor, named Inocencio Tucumbí, whose coffin was taken to the city centre, Inocencio died after being hit by a tear gas canister fired by the police at a protest last Wednesday.
Getty
Three other protestors have lost their lives during the protests and over 650 protestors have been arrested.
President Moreno had to move the government out of Quito to Guayaquil, Lenín Moreno has agreed to reassess the subsidies, but not necessarily repeal them.
This is not just about subsidies and the IMF, it is a reaction to the growing awareness by the people of Ecuador, that their country has been bought out by politicians and corporations, heavily exploited. As a result Ecuador now carries heavy debt.
Indigenous people are tired of the exploits of oil companies continuing to ignore the laws and rights of indigenous people. For over a century, oil and mining companies continue to ignoring the rights of indigenous people, accordingto Ecuadorian law, they are to seek prior consultation to any indigenous community that their activities may affect. They need to seek prior notice before going into an area of indigenous territory in the Amazon and exploiting the area for oil or mining. However, most oil and mining companies continue to ignore that indigenous communities exist, and that the ancestral lands belong to in the Amazon people, not for the Ecuadorian governments to allow corporations to enter, for oil, for gold, uranium and so on, this has continued to increase intensively, without international intervention or help, similarly the same is happening in Peru and Brazil where the middle of the rain forests have seen devastating gold mining expansion over thousands of hectares of Amazon rainforest have been turned to deserts this year .
In Ecuador, indigenous communties are strong and resistence affects the country immediately. Unfortunately, for Moreno, he took on Ecuador after the prior president Rafael Correa left a messy legacy behind. Correa squeezed all the money he could steal, out of the Ecuadorian economy.
Rafael Correa sold Ecuador out completely just before April 2017 Elections, while he was in government, he did a lot of back handed deals, one such deal was while he was running the Yasuni campaign to keep the oil in the ground, behind closed doors, he secretly made oil deals with Chinese oil companies while pretending to the public he wanted to conserve Yasuni National Park. Promptly after Moreno was elected, Rafael Correa immediately left for Brussels.
Two years before PetroAmazonia oil bonds were sold in the New York Stock Market, Correa’s government denounced the 10 per cent in annual interest the country paid on its bonds as “usury in 2015.” So when the 51-year-old former economics professor was only willing to pay 10.5 per cent in a sale of notes back then, it raised speculation the Opec nation may be running short of cash after oil prices collapsed. Before the March 19 sale 2015, Correa told potential buyers it wanted to pay less than 8 per cent to borrow at least US$1 billion for as long as seven years. Instead, the Andean nation got just US$750 million for five years at yields that were more than two percentage points higher. The sale “indicates that they are running into trouble,” said Sarah Glendon, an economist at Gramercy Funds Management.
Moreno and the people of Ecuador are paying this price, and Moreno is under a lot of pressure to try and find a solution to the mess. However, the ramifications are worse for the indigenous people and so as it is nearing 2020, when the debts of U.S.$315,339,980, has to be paid back at least
4.625% of notes are due by 2020, the pressure on Ecuadorian people and the government is worse than ever, what will Moreno do to compromise for the people of Ecuador? Times have already been hard on the Ecuadorian economy after Ecuador had to spend a lot of money rebuilding important infrastructure recovering from the 7.8 Earthquake in 2016.
Many indigenous people over the last three years have been greatly pressured and exploited as oil and mining activities expand an develop exponentially in the Ecuadorian Amazon. Since this means more destruction of the Amazon, to be exploited by oil companies such as Petro Amazonas and other oil companies for exploitation and drilling, as this debt needs to be paid back by next year, 2020 and these notes were borrowed on Petro Amazonas assets, one of the driving destroyers of the Ecuadorian Amazon.
How could the concept of Natural Capital help Ecuador reclaim economic autonomy?
Ecuador has more than half the world’s biodiversity found in the Amazon rainforest, in terms of Natural Capital, there is a great deal of value in the Amazon that could wipe out all of Ecuador’s world debt.
Today, biodiversity rich areas of the world are a critically endangered and a limited natural resource. We are living in the Sixth greatest mass extinction, because of our addiction to oil and wealth in terms of short term gain, this drastically affects how we manage biodiversity. It is an apocalypse happening in slow motion which affects all of the earth’s biodiversity which took 3.8 billion years of evolution to form. This extinction differs from previous extinctions, in that it is caused by humans, not by natural causes, as we are the cause, we can also slow it down or prevent it, if we make big changes. While governments are aware of this and we continue to accelerate it, each year, and this affects every single species and ecosystem on the planet, nothing is being done to protect biodiversity, instead twenty years on from my environmental science degree, it is disheartening to see environmental laws have become greately weakened as politicians are the stakeholders of lobbying corporations and are legally bribed to rewrite laws for backhanded payments. According to recent scientific data, animals and plants are disappearing at a rate of between 75 and 150 species per day. There may be no rain forest left in twenty years from now, nor fish in the ocean in ten years time and over half the world will have a water crisis, fifteen years from now. Bees are our most important crop pollinators and are fast disappearing and the rate of deforestation and ocean pollution is destroying these keystone ecosystems, which are drastically affected by man’s own actions. As most people are ecologically illiterate, we negate the goods and services and value these natural resources and the wealth they generate or the species that also contribute to the work of ecological goods and services.
Look at Africa, the natural capital if given monetary value would make it the richest country in the world in terms of natural resources. Western society must live more within our ecologically realistic limitations, consume less and live more sustainably. We agree that predatory capitalism equals exploitation, and thrives from growing centralized power structures. This is part of its subjective characteristics and results in a few countries having more power, wealth and opportunities than the rest of the world, which is the cancer of this growing disparity between the first world nations and ”third world nations”, which were originally ancient first world superpowers in the story of ancient history.
Natural Capital is a concept that was explored nearly 20 years ago now, pilot projects have been quietly funded by the United Nations to see how we can value nature and biodiversity for policy makers. The World Resource Institute (WRI) estimates the value of ecosystem services to be US $33 trillion a year, nearly twice the value of the global gross national product (GNP) of US $18 trillion. The US is also in debt by 17 trillion dollars, if the US switched to an economy based on natural capital, the financial value tied up in its natural capital would take care of this debt. In the same way that a banknote is a promissory note against the gold or silver that has been deposited in the bank, ecological economists are seeing how we can start to put the same value onto ecosystems and the role of species in ecosystem production; another example would be the 80 percent of oxygen generated by algae and microbial activity in the oceans. Hypothetically, the value of the work done in existing ecosystems could regenerate local economies and increase the wealth and monetary value of nature globally, simply by ensuring its conservation and existence by using initiatives similar to the TEEB Economic of Ecosystems and Biodiversity model if we took it to a community level to decentralize governmental powers and management of our natural resources.
Nature’s ecological banking system could be a way to revolutionise our world and local economies and transfer wealth from an oil-based economy to an ecology-based economy, this wealth would provide poor countries with enough ecological economy that global debt would become a thing of the past. This starts on a local level, worldwide, which would regenerate and allow local communities to have better control over their own natural resources, protecting and managing them from over-exploitation of previously decentralised management of resources, which could be prevented, if corporate social responsibility pays a tax to the natural capital destroyed and when more is taken out of the ecosystems and Natural Capital, than is put into them, this crucially needs to be taken into account in order to gain more balance.
In terms of flipping this over to give people power instead of governments, we could make local land trusts run by the local communities which protect thousands of hectares of rain forest for the future preservation of biodiversity and translate the value to cryptocurrency rather than fiat, which is centralized and controlled by governments, whereas cryptocurrency is not. Ecuador, Peru, Brazil,Bolivia, Venezuela and Colombia would be infinitely more wealthy because these countries are where the Amazon basin covers. If we put a value on just one hectare of the Amazon for the biodiversity it holds, or for the oxygen and clean water it produces, or for
Here we provide further steps towards sustainability and increasing power to local communities and protect nature from centralized predatory capitalism exploits:
1. Decentralisation of power in cities and governments, to smaller towns and villages, for local communities to have more say in governance of local resources instead of foreign governments.
2. Improve infrastructures in rural areas for solar and wind technology for self sustainable towns and greener cities, strengthening local infrastructures for alternative fuel systems to make the transition from oil easier, such as make hydrogen fuel cell refuelling stations, along with electric cars more available in every town and city and alternative energy resources for off the grid power generators.
3. Ideally, (because this won’t happen in real world politics), Western governments that currently have central power would return the rights for developing countries the access to manage their own land and natural resources which would remedy starvation, put a stop to corporate land grabs and create a more sustainably balanced structure that is not centralised or controlled by corporations and politicians of the Western World.
4. This is a hard one since those who have the power prefer to keep countries in debt, especially to exploit their resources. -Abolish “third world debt” based on unrealistic inflation agendas for the world powers to control natural resources in ‘poorer’ foreign countries that are actually ‘richer’ in rare minerals and natural resources than most Western countries, we will see how in further paragraphs the Natural Economy in terms of goods and services and biodiversity, can turn the poorest nations into the richest over night and would be used to wipe world debt.
5. Environmental laws need to make corporate exploitations of foreign natural resources a crime, more stringent environmental laws are necessary and no more erosion of these laws by politicians who are corporate pimps bribed to rewrite laws for corporate agendas. Western corporations need to abolish privatisation of water, and land resources in “third world countries”.
6. Return land rights to rural community agriculturalists in developing countries, and locally supporting sustainable agriculture. With localised sustainable farming, there would be an equal distribution of food and grain and where there is poor soil quality implementation of soil restoration projects .
The current global conflicts, we see emerging in both the ecological and economic crisis, is a sign that we need to re-evaluate the global economy that has been built on short-term gain and erroneous decisions of greedy politicians and their corporate partners, with no acknowledgement or regard for nature’s capital, invisible goods, services and production that everyone takes for granted. This completely disregards nature’s capital value. Our view of nature is to see ourselves as separate and above it, a western view that is so engrained in our perception of the world, we don’t think twice about our wasteful consumerist culture. We could start exploring new ways of seeing nature as a valuable investment we need to protect, to preserve biodiversity and the natural balance of ecosystems for the future of humanity.
Graphene can act as an insulator and superconductor.
It is a general consensus that carbon dioxide is considered to be adding to greenhouse gases and its global warming effect. However, for chemical reactions, carbon dioxide can also be a helpful raw material.
Carbon dioxide is significant for chemical reactions, a scientific research group has now announced at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), on this phenomenon and how it could be applied in a way to increase the development of an essential material that could revolutionise clean alternative energy harnessing, with Carbon dioxide. They discovered they could utilise carbon dioxide as a raw material to produce graphene, a technological material which is currently the subject of intense study.
Back in 2011, Justin Hall-Tipping was the first scientific pioneer to use graphene in Nano Solar energy, which was a huge innovation in nanotechnology, that few people still have not heard much about today. This technology will put an end to nuclear and coal power stations. Tippin and his group of nano-tech and solar energy scientists produced a clear film of transparent plastic, that you can stick to your window, turning a window of any building into a an electricity generator or a modern power station to produce all your power needs or send others energy if they need it.
The entrepreneur, Justin Hall-Tipping, sought out the world’s leading nanotechnology scientists to harness the electron and create energy through nanotechnology, now they have a company called Nanoholdings, which consists of team of scientists, investors and innovators working at the cutting-edge of nanotechnology to develop solutions to the world’s growing energy problems. Working in partnership with the world’s best universities, they have developed products and companies that will revolutionise the way we use and generate energy. Imagine you live in a building that has very large windows, you can use each window much like a solar panel, simply by using a thin plastic film with energy harnessing systems, embedded inside the film as fine or finer than a human hair, the plastic sheet can be stuck onto the window panes of a house or office building to use the light and heat energy beaming in through the window. This becomes a powerhouse using nanotechnology to convert light energy from the sun to power up the building for heat or to cool or generate electricity and if it is not required there, it can then be sent to someone else who needs it more.
(Hall-Tipping, 2011).
Now this new discovery about graphene announced at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), on using Carbon dioxide to produce graphene, adds even more exciting developments to the nanotechnology exotic altenative energy possibilities of the future of free energy.
The current archaic combustion of fossil fuels, includes coal and oil which emit large quantities of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and even more so when the oil or gas has been drilled from the Amazon rainforest. Every day, destruction of vast areas of rainforest is at a critical scale, the trees and disturbed soil, where the carbon dioxide had been naturally sequestered, (acted as a carbon sink before being disturbed), are then released into the atmosphere. Cutting this causal chain is what motivates Kit scientists to search for the opportunity of producing electricity from graphene, but additionally for alternative uses of carbon dioxide. One opportunity could be to look at carbon dioxide as a valuable resource for the synthesis of other precious elements, sequestering it back to the natural cycle, the result would not only clean up the planet, but also provide cleaner energy materials and off grid resources.
An example can be found in nature. During photosynthesis in the leaves of plants, the combination of light, water and carbon dioxide creates biomass, closing the natural material cycle. In this process, it is the job of the metal-based enzyme RuBisCo to absorb the carbon dioxide from the air and make it usable for the further chemical reactions in the plant. Inspired by this metal enzyme-based natural conversion, researchers at KIT are now presenting a process in which the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide together with hydrogen gas is converted directly into graphene at temperatures of up to 1000 degrees Celsius with the help of specially prepared, catalytically active metal surfaces.
The team of scientists were inspired by a metal enzyme-based natural conversion, therefore they are actually presenting a system wherein the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide together with hydrogen gas is converted at once into graphene at temperatures of up to 1000 degrees Celsius, with the assist of specifically prepared, catalytically active metallic surfaces. This innovation was drawn from the role it has in photosynthesis in plants, the combination of water, sunlight and carbon dioxide creates biomass, the metalic-based enzyme RuBisCo can soak up the carbon dioxide from the air and make it usable for more chemical reactions in the plant.
Graphene is the two-dimensional form of the chemical element carbon, and as mentioned earlier has been used in nanotechnology to enhance solar energy cells to be able to harness energy through a transparent plastic film. Graphene has been used in a number of alternative energy generators and is known to have interesting electrical properties and is therefore an choice for innovative off-grid clean alternative energy generators, likely to be met with the same counterpressures as other alternative generators however the difference is this is nanotechnology, this industry has been growing rapidly and there is a great deal of money in this system, It is unlikely this innovation can be derailed in the same way other forms have. Its discovery and workability in 2004 brought about international, intensive studies and earned the discoverers, Andre Geim and Konstanin Novoselov, received the Nobel Prize for Physics in 2010.
The Scientific workgroup at Kit have join forces to publish and present the technique within the ChemSusChem journal for setting apart graphene from carbon dioxide and hydrogen by way of a metal catalyst. “If the metal surface exhibits the correct ratio of copper and palladium, the conversion of carbon dioxide to graphene will take place directly in a simple one-step process,” explains the head of the study, Professor Mario Ruben, from the Molekulare Materialien working group at the Institute of Nanotechnology (INT) and the Institute for Inorganic Chemistry (AOC) at KIT.
In other developments with graphene, the research group have been even capable of produce graphene several layers thick, which might be exciting for feasible programs in batteries, digital compounds, or filtering compounds. Following research is to form functioning energy components from the graphene. Carbon based materials such as graphene and magnetic molecules could be the constructing blocks for future quantum computers along with other possibilities. Therefore, using Carbon Dioxide to produce Graphene, could develop exotic nanotechnologies even more as a driver for graphene based electrity generators in alternative energy and help restore climate balance at the same time,. The days of the coal or nuclear power stations are numbered as graphene and nanotechnologies are developing.
Written by Carlita Shaw
Author of The Silent Ecocide
You can also follow my ecological projects and articles on Ecosolutionaries at Steemit.
Concepción Molina‐Jirón, Mohammed Reda Chellali, C. N. Shyam Kumar, Christian Kübel, Leonardo Velasco, Horst Hahn, Eufemio Moreno‐Pineda, Mario Ruben. Direct Conversion of CO 2 to Multi‐Layer Graphene using Cu–Pd Alloys. ChemSusChem, 2019; DOI: 10.1002/cssc.201901404
Poco sabía, que fui testigo involuntario del comienzo de una larga resistencia para las comunidades nacionales de la Amazonía Ecuatoriana. En 2012, en mi cuarto día de mi estadía de tres semanas, en las profundidades de la Amazonía Ecuatoriana, la tranquilidad del bosque fue interrumpida por un helicóptero militar no invitado que aterrizó en el territorio Shiwiar de Jusuintsa alrededor del 21 de agosto. Se suponía que debían pedir permiso a la comunidad de Shiwiar para hacer esto, pero no lo hicieron. Mi corazón comenzó a acelerarse mientras caminábamos hacia estos invitados no invitados. Solo había una cosa en la que podía pensar, “Petroleum”, por qué estaban entrometiéndose en el territorio de Shiwiar sin previo aviso. Compartí mis preocupaciones con la comunidad, fuimos a hablar con los oficiales que dijeron que simplemente estaban mapeando el área, ya que nunca había sido mapeado oficialmente. Les pregunté si era por el petróleo, negaron que lo fuera.
En Octubre de 2012, recibí algunas noticias de última hora desde uno de mis amigos de Shiwiar. Veronica Shiran, gerente de la estación de radio Shiwiar, para todo el norte de Ecuador en la región de Pastaza, me contó lo que se acaba de anunciar a su comunidad hace unas semanas, dijo, “qué significa esto para Shiwiar y para los demás. Las comunidades indígenas del Amazonas están más allá de sus peores pesadillas ‘‘.
El 23 de Octubre de 2018, en la conferencia de Hidrocarburos, en Ecuador, la compañía petrolera PetroAmazonias planea aumentar su producción y extracción de petróleo en la selva amazónica a 700,000 barriles por día hasta el año 2021. Este mes, los ministros del gobierno Ecuatoriano declararon que iban a ingresar a los bloques petroleros 85, 86 y 87. Durante la reunión del sector minero y petrolero se indicó que los bloques petroleros 85 y 86, Carlos Pérez, ministro de Energía y Recursos Naturales No Renovables, declararon ”que no habría problemas para ingresar y profundice en estos bloques porque no hay comunidades indígenas presentes allí y por lo tanto, el impacto sería mínimo”.
El Presidente ecuatoriano, Lenin Moreno, culpas a la situación económica que heredó del predecesor Rafael Correa ya que la deuda acumulada del país era de casi $42 mil millones, sin incluir otros pasivos por valor de $ 8 mil millones. Una herencia con préstamos Estado Unidenses sobre actividades petroleras que afectan la caída de los precios del petróleo, la corrupción en el sector financiero y petrolero del gobierno y las consecuencias devastadoras del terremoto de Abril de 2016.
Sin embargo, la declaración que Carlos Pérez hizo acerca de que los bloques 86 y 87 están desocupados, es una mentira inconveniente. Como está claro, hay tres territorios ancestrales indígenas con comunidades activas afectadas por esta propuesta.
Personalmente, he trabajado con el Shiwiar desde 2011 y envié muchos voluntarios al territorio de Shiwiar. También me quedé con el Shiwiar y tuve que volar en un pequeño avión apache durante una hora y media, solo para llegar a este increíble hotspot de biodiversidad en las profundidades del Amazonas.
Varios reclamos serios deben ser destacados aquí. En primer lugar, Carlos Pérez y el gobierno Ecuatoriano están ignorando el hecho obvio de que estos territorios están ocupados por tres comunidades importantes, Shiwiar, Sapora y Achuar.
En segundo lugar, no han podido consultar legalmente a las comunidades indígenas ante todo, antes de cualquier propuesta pública o conferencia de cualquier actividad industrial. Los grupos indígenas en Ecuador han sido reconocidos en las Naciones Unidas, donde existe un acuerdo, no vinculante, que brinda a los grupos indígenas la oportunidad de defender sus vidas, sus tierras y su cultura. A lo largo de la Declaración, se garantiza el derecho a un proceso de “Consentimiento libre, previo e informado” para los pueblos indígenas cuando se enfrentan a decisiones, proyectos o leyes de corporaciones o gobiernos que puedan afectar a su población y / o territorio. El Artículo 57, punto 7 de la Constitución de Ecuador de 2008 garantiza una consulta libre, previa e informada, dentro de un plazo razonable; sin embargo, esto no requiere consentimiento (y no es vinculante). El Artículo 82, se refiere explícitamente a la consulta ambiental, en el caso de una decisión estatal que podría afectar el medio ambiente, y especifica información amplia y oportuna para los afectados. Sin embargo, incluso si hay una mayoría que se opone al proyecto en cuestión, todavía puede llevarse a cabo con la condición de que se minimice el impacto en los afectados y en el ecosistema.
En cuarto lugar, Ecuador reescribió su Constitución en 2007-2008 y fue ratificado por referéndum por el pueblo de Ecuador en Septiembre de 2008. La nueva Constitución Ecuatoriana incluye un Capítulo de los Derechos para la Naturaleza. En lugar de tratar a la naturaleza como una propiedad bajo la ley, los artículos de Derechos para Naturaleza, reconocen que la naturaleza en todas sus formas de vida tiene el derecho de existir, persistir, mantener y regenerar sus ciclos vitales, y la gente: tiene la autoridad legal para hacer cumplir estos derechos y el nombre de los ecosistemas. El propio ecosistema puede ser nombrado como el victima.
Finalmente, el Acuerdo de Escazú fue adoptado el 4 de Marzo de 2018, en San José, Costa Rica, por representantes de 24 países, incluido Ecuador. El tratado implementa el Principio 10 de la Declaración de Río, adoptado en la Cumbre de la Tierra en 1992, al establecer salvaguardas para Derechos de acceso a la información, participación pública y acceso a la justicia en materia ambiental. El acuerdo también impone obligaciones específicas para proteger de las amenazas y ataques a las personas que defienden los derechos humanos relacionados con el medio ambiente, para investigar y castigar cualquier agresión contra estas personas y para garantizar sus derechos a la vida e integridad personal, así como los derechos a Libertad de reunión pacífica, movimiento, expresión y asociación.
“Todas las personas tienen derecho a un ambiente limpio y saludable, asegurándose de que todas las voces puedan escucharse cuando sea el momento de tomar decisiones importantes que nos afectan a todos”, Erika Guevara Rosas, Directora de Amnistía Internacional para las Américas.
El video anterior es una conferencia de prensa programada el 23 de octubre, 2018 para que las nacionalidades indígenas de los territorios Ecuatorianos del Amazonas rechacen la XI Ronda del petróleo y las declaraciones de Carlos Pérez del ministerio de hidrocarburos.
Los presidentes de 7 nacionalidades de Pastaza y Morona Santiago con los presidentes de Confeniae, Conaie, expresaron su rechazo rotundo de la licitación de bloques petroleros en la Amazonía sur-central.
Edison Gualinga portavoz de la comunidad Shiwiar
Nosotros, los Shiwiar, tenemos el deber de poder transponer esta manifestación de público de manera progresiva, estamos aquí con nuestros colegas y comunidades unidas, los Achuar, Confeniae, Conaie y los representantes Sapara. Hemos planeado presentar nuestra asamblea al gobierno Ecuatoriano. Entendemos que el gobierno está negociando para poder hacer lo que es la nueva compañía petrolera en los territorios del sudeste de las Amazonas. Entendemos que quieren hacerlo en los bloques de petróleo 86 y 87, lo que significa que el territorio Sapora y Shiwiar se verán afectados directamente. Por lo tanto, por este dolor, no somos un sacrificio y estamos profundamente preocupados. Hemos estado resistiendo esta explotación durante mucho tiempo, pero ahora ha llegado a un punto crítico. Al sur, en esta provincia de Pastaza, contamos con catorce comunidades y 4 asociaciones, las comunidades de los nacionales de Shiwiar y Sapara.
Nuestra demostración es clara, compañeros, nosotros, el Shiwiar de Ecuador, lucharemos cuando ingrese petróleo para evitar comunidades fragmentadas y sitios forestales después de que las compañías petroleras los hayan impactado. La nacionalidad Shiwiar de Ecuador nunca permitirá la entrada de petróleo, ¿por qué? Debido a que vivimos en la naturaleza, dependemos de la naturaleza, porque ningún ser humano es independiente de la naturaleza, lo sabemos muy bien porque cada vez que han estado perforando causaron la contaminación devastadora de siete compañías misioneras de algunos superestados extranjeros, lo que hace que sean irreversibles Contaminación ambiental.
La nacionalidad Shiwiar de Ecuador, cuenta con doscientas treinta y ocho mil hectáreas donde nunca podríamos permitir, enteria de estas petroleras. También trabajamos en programas de conservación para proteger y preservar el medio ambiente. Nos reunimos a principios de este año, del 20 al 21 de julio de 2018 para 14 comunidades y 4 asociados, y creamos soluciones.
Rechazamos ninguna consulta previa de nuestra nacionalidad y territorio en 2012 y cualquier otra consulta previa o solicitud de que esto se reconozca en el futuro.
Rechazamos rotundamente la nueva ronda de petróleo en el sureste que pretende registrarse en el gobierno nacional sobre nuestro territorio ancestral sin consulta previa con nosotros, el pueblo Shiwiar.
El Shiwiar de Ecuador no acepta y rechaza categóricamente que Petroamazonias no tiene una consulta previa con nuestro pueblo, porque toda la consulta fundamentada es transparente y suficiente. Hasta ahora todo refleja solo corrupción. ¿Dónde una vez fuimos consultados o informados antes de cualquier actividad y cuándo han recibido consultas nuestras comunidades o asociaciones? Rechazamos esta falta de respeto por nuestra comunidad y nuestra asociación, por no buscar una consulta previa con nosotros. Los hombres Shiwiar, las mujeres Shiwiar, los niños, las niñas Shiwiar, las personas Shiwiar quisieran que las compañías petroleras respeten nuestro territorio, porque sin este territorio no podemos vivir.
No permitimos que las compañías petroleras ingresen y le digo a Carlos Pérez del ministerio, no vamos a dar un paso atrás para que las compañías petroleras puedan ingresar, siempre continuaremos esta lucha porque tenemos los derechos para proteger nuestro territorio. No es un territorio que exista con el único propósito de explotaciones petroleras o minerales. Es una gran universidad de naturaleza y vida para esta comunidad, tenemos nuestros propios derechos en nuestros territorios, los mismos derechos para la educación y la salud y siete aspectos más, por lo tanto, con respecto a los derechos para elegir esta forma de vida.
El mapa anterior muestra claramente que los reclamos de Carlos Pérez están desocupados y, por lo tanto, causarían un impacto mínimo, de hecho, están ocupados por los Achuar, Shiwiar, Sapora y Kichwa.
Nema Grefa portavoz de la nacionalidad y asociación Sapora.
Soy el presidente y representante de la nacionalidad Sapora, y rechazamos la perforación del bloque 86, 87, porque este territorio nos pertenece, no pertenece al gobierno. Nos sentimos profundamente afectados si el territorio Saparo es ingresado por las compañías petroleras, y así el territorio Shiwiar se ve directamente afectado. Como resultado, hemos unificado todas las nacionalidades y rechazamos la explotación de estos territorios. Al igual que las nacionalidades de los nativos americanos en los Estados Unidos, estamos organizados para que nuestros territorios no se ingresen. En este caso, queremos recordar al gobierno que nuestra nacionalidad Sapora tiene un patrimonio, por lo tanto, el gobierno debe respetarlo.
Después de reconocer esto, también deben respetar todos los territorios indígenas.
Rechazamos como nacionalidad que si quieren entrar, o si nos abren fuego, nos levantamos aquí para decirles, la razón misma por la que ignoraron la consulta previa con nosotros o con el Shiwiar, para esto tenemos razón, una lanza, con esta lanza, continuaremos resistiendo. Nuestra nacionalidad Sapora quiere que el gobierno y el ministro señor Carlos Pérez respeten nuestro territorio porque vivimos con la naturaleza. El ministro dice que nadie vive en este territorio, pero hay cinco comunidades que viven en este territorio, es nuestro territorio y la biodiversidad tiene un valor de preservación para el futuro del planeta, no para que lo utilicen es como un mercado al que convertir. dinero. Por eso tengo una amenaza, que ellos la entiendan es nuestro territorio. Siempre piensan que pueden explotar nuestro territorio sin limitaciones, si permitimos que continúe, lo que sucede es que no habrá más biodiversidad o jungla para el futuro del planeta. Es nuestra responsabilidad protegerlo y proteger nuestro territorio.
Gracias a todos los periodistas que están aquí, en este momento es un trabajo fundamental que las personas de la región Amazónica y el mundo necesitan para conocer esta realidad. La Confederación de Nacionalidades Indígenas del Ecuador representa y apoya a nuestra gente, apoyando esta moción, apoyando esta voz que tienen estas personas y sus derechos humanos. Hasta que se respeten los derechos de nuestras nacionalidades. Nuestra historia ancestral nos dice que hemos muerto al ser ignorados y que hemos muerto al ser discriminados, esto es lo que soportaron nuestros padres y antepasados, ahora esta es la misma historia para nosotros, y más de 525 años de lucha continuamos con ella.
Hoy apoyamos la nacionalidad Sapara y las nacionalidades Shiwiar que hacen que estos bloques 86 y 87 se conozcan claramente como sus territorios. Cuando el ministro de Hidrocarburos, Carlos Pérez declaró que no hay indígenas en estos territorios, que no hay comunidades, ¿qué decepcion? Claramente, los territorios de nuestra gente comunal están en estos bloques y están profundamente afectados. La nacionalidad Shiwiar, si no también hasta la nacionalidad Kichwa en este caso, CONAIE está apoyando a estas comunidades. Estamos atentos a los derechos de nuestras nacionalidades y comunidades que crees que puedes comprarnos y quitarnos. Recuerde que nuestro trabajo es defender la cosmovisión y la visión del mundo de las personas de las nacionalidades. Somos los guardianes de CONAIE, por lo que estas solicitudes y nuestros territorios permanecen protegidos. No puedes simplemente entrar en ellos, debes respetar y reconocer los derechos de las nacionalidades de los pueblos. Muchas gracias.
Julián, Portavoz de la Nacionalidad Achuar del Ecuador.
Donde estamos está en Morona Santiago. Gracias a todas las nacionalidades que se han unido hoy aquí, Nema Grefa, Andrés Tapia, Edison Gualinga, Shiwiar y otros que nos apoyan. La nacionalidad Achuar quisiera rechazar el bloque 86 que está afectando a nuestros y amenazando con dañar los territorios de las comunidades Shiwiar y Saparo y también no solo está afectando a sus territorios, sino también a nuestro territorio Achuar. Esto se debe a que nuestras comunidades están contiguas a la nacionalidad Shiwiar. Por lo tanto, decimos no a las compañías petroleras, madereras y mineras que no pueden ingresar, por lo tanto, en aras de la preservación de nuestras nacionalidades y territorios unidos, los Achuar son bienvenidos si desean ayudarnos a preservar el bosque y a nosotros mismos, luego bienvenidos, Seamos amables con las anclas del bosque de nuestros antepasados, que viven en estos territorios. Las compañías petroleras no tienen ningún negocio para el desarrollo aquí en el Amazonas, simplemente han dejado la contaminación en la naturaleza en todas partes, esta es la razón por la que rechazamos su presencia. Entonces, por lo tanto, continuaremos apoyando estas nacionalidades, que son entendidas por las compañías petroleras. Por lo tanto, el presidente, Lenin Moreno, tiene que entender, tienen que respetar las decisiones de las nacionalidades, también el ministro Carlos Pérez, de hidrocarburos, tiene que entender esto, porque vivimos con nuestros propios planes de vida. Con nuestra propia cosmovisión en nuestros territorios, cumpliendo con nuestros planes de vida, que es el proyecto profundo de cada nacionalidad. Así ha sido siempre como estamos unidos aquí, unidos por las nacionalidades para defender este territorio. Gracias
Andrés Tapia portavoz de CONFENIAE
El ministro de hidrocarburos, Carlos Pérez, quien hizo una declaración sobre los bloques petroleros 86 y 87, dijo que el impacto en estos bloques sería mínimo porque no hay comunidades allí. Rechazamos esta afirmación, hecha sin fundamento, conocemos la dinámica de las comunidades. En este caso, ¿qué comunidades están presentes en estos bloques?
Bueno, para comenzar, el territorio Shiwiar está en el Bloque 86, que consta de cuatro comunidades, también Juinitsa, y el territorio Sapara, el territorio nacional Achuar en el bloque 85, y en el bloque 87, y la comunidad Jaco Jaco que es Kichwa. Por lo tanto, la declaración de Pérez es una declaración que no tiene fundamento y, lógicamente, solo se hace por el interés obvio de las empresas petroleras que buscan explotar estos bloques petroleros. El otro lado de nuestra falta de acuerdo, del estado de la realidad de la vida es de las nacionalidades, en nuestras comunidades, cada uno de nosotros tiene planes de vida y planes de manera fluida. Nuestras culturas nuestras existen, que consiste en personas, comunidades, familiares, familias, hombres y mujeres. Hay territorios de las áreas mejor conservadas de bosque lluvioso y puntos calientes de biodiversidad con nuestras nacionalidades que actúan como guardianes del bosque y las preservan, Achuar, Shiwiar, Sappora y Kichwa tienen nuestros propios planes para mantener la conservación. Esto es lo que deseamos expresar por la lucha de nuestras nacionalidades cuando enfrentamos la explotación.
En segundo lugar, queremos expresar nuestro total apoyo a las nacionalidades en Pastaza para estos tres nacionales especiales, Shiwiar, Sappara y Achuar, quienes en este momento están dando su rara aparición en la prensa para hacer este llamado. Las 7 nacionalidades de Pastaza y las 10 organizaciones de Pastaza y Morona Santiago, el 23 de Octubre en Quito, en las afueras del hotel Marriott, junto con los presidentes de Confeniae, Conaie expresaron su rechazo rotundo a la licitación de los bloques petroleros en el sureste Amazonas. Ahora los presidentes dicen, ¿cuáles son las soluciones que podemos construir para el congreso Kichwa y Pastaza? Apropiadamente, la nacionalidad Kichwa desea mantener su territorio libre de contaminación ambiental. La forma en que nuestras 7 nacionalidades están en Pastaza es muy enfática en que esta exploración no se realice.
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– Finalmente, hablemos con el gobierno de Lenin Moreno, lo que sabemos que el ministro no va a rechazar en nuestra solicitación, nos dirigimos al presidente republicano y queremos saber qué tipo de actividad, prospector, socialización, es muy claro. No se nos dio un proceso de consulta previa, no se conoce ningún tipo de socialización con nuestras comunidades, o no se ha realizado una consulta previa con estas comunidades afectadas, en esta área, y como resultado de esto, están directamente indignados. Si continuamos con nuestra denuncia nacional e internacional, como la semana pasada cuando presentamos esta carta abierta al público. Entonces, hagámoslo y tomemos medidas a nivel internacional y nacional. No más concesiones para empresas petroleras y mineras en el Amazonas. Continuaremos defendiendo nuestros territorios. Gracias
El valor ecológico de la Selva Amazónica.
La dependencia global del petróleo nos hace a todos responsables de hacer algo para proteger el Amazonas, ya que la dependencia mundial del petróleo es una de las principales causas de su rápida destrucción, lo que significa que las decisiones para sus medidas de conservación recaen en la comunidad internacional. No solo con el gobierno ecuatoriano o con los otros países que ocupa el Amazonas. Las selvas tropicales son la base de más de 5,000 productos de hierbas medicinales, curas para el cáncer y fuentes populares de alimentos, muebles y ropa.
En términos de tiempo, la selva tropical del Amazonas tardó 3.500 millones de años en evolucionar y convertirse en la maravilla del mundo de la biodiversidad rica en especies. Si se destruye, entonces desaparece para siempre, nada puede replicar o reemplazar eso, menos otros 3,500 millones de años libres de humanos. La parte occidental de la cuenca del Amazonas es uno de los puntos calientes de biodiversidad más ricos del mundo; El nivel de biodiversidad en la Amazonía Ecuatoriana es especialmente sorprendente. Para ponerlo en perspectiva, el parque nacional Yasuní contiene alrededor de 600 especies de aves y 170 especies de mamíferos, 1,100 especies de árboles en un área de un cuarto de kilómetro cuadrado, y eso es más especies que en todos los EE. UU. Y Canadá combinados. La mayoría de las personas no se dan cuenta de que gran parte del carbono liberado cuando se destruye una selva tropical se encuentra en el suelo de turba debajo de los árboles, no solo en los árboles sino en la mayor parte de los suelos de turba debajo de los cuales se almacenan miles de toneladas de carbono. Por eso, son invaluables sumideros de carbono, debajo de los árboles, y esto es clave para ayudar a regular el clima. Esto significa que cuando se produce la deforestación, todo el carbono que previamente estaba encerrado en el suelo de turba debajo de la selva tropical se libera a la atmósfera.
El Convenio sobre la Diversidad Biológica establece que la Amazonia contiene más del 50 por ciento de las especies de plantas y animales del mundo. No debemos descontar el valor de sus secretos no descubiertos para la ciencia médica y para la humanidad, ya que las personas están descubriendo curas a base de plantas para el cáncer que provienen de las plantas de la selva, hay más de 60,000 especies de plantas en la Amazonía y solo el 3 por ciento ha Estudiado para propiedades medicinales. Muchos de nuestros alimentos provienen de la selva tropical junto con otros materiales importantes. Existen miles de especies de plantas y animales aún por descubrir, pero los estamos destruyendo a un ritmo que es más rápido de lo que los estamos descubriendo. Por lo tanto, la opinión y las acciones de todos son relevantes y juegan un papel importante en la defensa de este ecosistema clave, ya que su devastación será la devastación de todos nosotros si no intervenimos para defender lo que queda de la selva amazónica.
Si desea publicar partes de este artículo en otro lugar donde haga referencia al enlace de la fuente a esta página y a este artículo, también puedo proporcionar Transcripciones en español. Gracias
Little did I know, that I was an involuntary witness to the beginning of a long resistance for the national communities of the Ecuadorian Amazon. In 2012, on my fourth day of my three week stay, deep in the Ecuadorian Amazon, the tranquillity of the forest was interrupted by an uninvited military helicopter that landed in the Shiwiar territory of Jusuintsa around the 21st of August. They were supposed to ask the Shiwiar community permission to do this, but neglected to do so. My heart began racing as we walked towards these uninvited guests. There was only one thing I could think of as to why they were intruding upon the Shiwiar territory unannounced, ‘Petroleum’. I shared my concerns with the community, we went to talk to the officers whom claimed they were simply mapping the area, as it had never officially been mapped before. I asked them if it was for oil, they denied it was.
In October, 2012 I received some breaking news from one of my Shiwiar friends. Veronica Shiran, manager of the Shiwiar radio station for the whole of northern Ecuador in the Pastaza region, relayed to me, what was just announced to her community a few weeks ago, she said, “what this means for the Shiwiar and for the other indigenous communities of the Amazon is beyond their worst nightmares”.
On October 23, 2018, at the Hydrocarbons conference,Ecuador, Petroleum Company PetroAmazonias plans to increase its crude production and extraction of oil in the Amazon rain forest to 700,000 barrels per day until the year 2021. This month, the Ecuadorian government ministers declared they were going to enter oil blocks 85, 86, and 87. During the meeting of the mining and oil sector stated that Oil Blocks 85 and 86, Carlos Pérez, minister of Energy and Non-Renewable Natural Resources declared there would be no problems to enter and drill in these blocks because there are no indigenous communities present there and therefore the impact would be minimal.
Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno blames that the economic situation he inherited from predecessor Rafael Correa and that the country’s accumulating debt stood at nearly $42 billion, without including other liabilities worth $8 billion. An inheritance with US loans on oil activities affecting the fall in oil prices, corruption in the government financial and oil sector and the devastating consequences of the April, 2016 earthquake.
However, the declaration Carlos Pérez made about blocks 86 and 87 being unoccupied is an inconvenient lie. Since, it is quite clear there are three indigenous ancestral territories with active communities on them affected by this proposal.
Personally, I have worked with the Shiwiar since 2011 and I sent many volunteers to the Shiwiar territory. I also stayed with the Shiwiar and had to fly in a small apache plane for an hour and a half, just to get to this amazing biodiversity hotspot deep in the Amazon.
Several serious grievances need to be highlighted here. Firstly, Carlos Pérez and the Ecuadorian Government are ignoring the obvious fact that these territories are occupied bv three important communities, the Shiwiar, the Sapora and Achuar.
Secondly, they have failed to legally consult the indigenous communities first and foremost, prior to any public proposals or conferences of any industrial activities. Indigenous groups in Ecuador have been recognised under the United Nations to which there exists a non-binding agreement, which gives indigenous groups the chance to defend their lives, land, and culture. Guaranteed throughout the Declaration is the right to a process of “Free, Prior and Informed Consent” for indigenous peoples when faced with decisions, projects, or legislation by corporations or government that may affect their people and/or territory. Article 57, point 7 of the 2008 Constitution of Ecuador guarantees free, prior and informed consultation, within a reasonable period; however, this does not require consent (and is not binding). Article 82 refers explicitly to environmental consultation, in the case of a state decision which might affect the environment, and specifies broad and timely information for those affected. However, even if there is a majority opposing the project in question, it may still be carried out on the condition that the impact on those affected and the ecosystem is minimised.
Thirdly, Ecuador rewrote its Constitution in 2007-2008 and it was ratified by referendum by the people of Ecuador in September 2008. The new Ecuadorian Constitution includes a Chapter for the Rights for Nature. Rather than treating nature as property under the law, Rights for Nature articles acknowledge that nature in all its life forms has the right to exist, persist, maintain and regenerate its vital cycles. And the people – have the legal authority to enforce these rights on behalf of ecosystems. The ecosystem itself can be named as the defendant.
Finally, The Escazu Agreement was adopted on March 4, 2018, in San Jose, Costa Rica, by representatives of 24 countries including Ecuador, the treaty implements Principle 10 of the Rio Declaration, adopted at the Earth Summit in 1992, by establishing safeguards for access rights to the information, public participation and access to justice in environmental matters. The agreement also imposes specific obligations to protect from threats and attacks to people who defend human rights related to the environment, to investigate and punish any aggression against these people, and to guarantee their rights to life and personal integrity, as well as the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly, movement, expression and association.
“All people have a right to a clean and healthy environment, making sure that all voices can be heard when it is time to take important decisions that affect us all,”-Erika Guevara Rosas, Americas Director of Amnesty International.
The above video is a press conference set on the 23rd of October for the Indigenous Nationalities of the Ecuadorian Amazon Territories to Reject The XI Oil Round and the Declarations of Carlos Perez of the hydrocarbon ministry-
The presidents of 7 nationalities of Pastaza and Morona Santiago with the presidents of Confeniae, Conaie, expressed their resounding rejection of the bidding of oil blocks in the south central Amazon.
Edison Gualinga spokesperson for the Shiwiar Community
We the Shiwiar, have a duty to be able to transpose this manifestation of public in a progressive manner, we are here with our colleagues and united communities, the Achuar, and Confeniae, Conaie and representatives Sapara. We have planned to present our assembly to the Ecuadorian government. We understand that the government is negotiating to be able to make what is the new oil company in the South eastern territories of the Amazonias. We understand they want to do it in oil blocks 86 and 87, This means that the territorial Sapora, and Shiwiar, will be affected directly. Therefore, for this pain, we are not a sacrifice and we are deeply concerned. We have been resisting this exploitation for a long time but now it has come to a head. To the South in this province of Pastaza, we count fourteen communities and 4 associations, the communities of the Shiwiar and Sapora nationals.
Our demonstration is clear, companions, we, the Shiwiar of Ecuador, will fight when you enter petroleum to avoid fragmented communities and forest sites after the oil companies have impacted them. The Shiwiar nationality of Ecuador will never allow the entry of oil, why? Because we live in nature, we are dependent on nature, because no human being is independent of nature, we know it very well because every time they have been drilling they caused devastating contamination of seven mission companies of some foreign super states, thus making irreversible environment pollution.
The Nationality Shiwiar Ecuador, have two hundred and thirty eight thousand hectares where we could never allow, entry of these oil companies. We also work in conservation programs to protect and preserve the environment. We assembled earlier this year in July 20-21, 2018 for 14 communities and 4 associates and we made solutions.
We reject no prior consultation of our nationality and territory in 2012 and what other prior consultation or request that this is acknowledged in the future.
We strongly rejects the new round of oil in the south-east that pretends to register in the national government over our ancestral territory without prior consultation to us, the Shiwiar people.
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The Shiwiar of Ecuador do not accept and categorically rejects that Petroamazonias has no prior consultation with our people, because all the prior informed consultation is transparent and sufficient. Everything so far reflects only corruption. where once were we consulted or informed prior to any activities? And when have our our communities or associations received consultations? We reject this lack of respect for our community and our association, for not seeking prior consultation with us. Shiwiar men, Shiwiar women, children, Shiwiar girls, the Shiwiar people would like to see oil companies respect our territory, because without this territory we can not live.
We do not allow oil companies to enter and I tell Carlos Perez of the ministry, we are not going to step back so that the oil companies can enter, we will always continue this fight because we have the rights to protect our territory. It is not a territory that exists for the sole purpose of oil or mineral exploits. It is a great university of nature and life for this community, we have our own rights in our territories, the same rights for education and health and seven more aspects, therefore regarding the rights to choose this way of life.
The above map clearly shows that blocks Carlos Perez claims are unoccupied and therefore would cause minimal impact are in fact occupied by the Achuar, Shiwiar, Sapora and Kichwa.
Nema Grefa spokesperson for the Sapora nationality and association
I am the president and representative the Sapora nationality, and we reject the drilling of block 86, 87, because this territory belongs to us, it does not belong to the government. We will be profoundly affected if the territory Saparo is entered by oil companies, and so the Shiwiar territory be directly affected. As a result we have unified all the nationalities and reject exploitation of these territories. Similar to as nationalities of Native Americans in the United States, we are organized so that our territories are not entered. In this case, we want to remind the government that our Sapora nationality has a patrimony, therefore the government must respect this. After recognizing this, they also need to respect all indigenous territories.
We reject as a nationality that if they want to enter, or if they open fire upon us, we get up here to say, the very reason they have ignored prior consulting with us or with the Shiwiar, we have a spear, with this spear we will continue to resist. Our nationality Sapora want the government and the Minister Senor Carlos Perez to respect our territory because we live with nature. The minister say’s nobody lives in this territory, but there are, five communities living in this territory, it is our territory and the biodiversity has a preservation value for the future of the planet, not for them to use is like a market to convert to money. That is why I have a threat, for them to understand is our territory. They always think they can exploit our territory without limitations, if we allowed that to continue, what happens is there will be no more biodiversity or jungle for the future of the planet. It is our responsibility to protect it and protect our territory.
Thanks for all the journalists who are here, right now it is a fundamental job that people of the Amazon region and the world need to know this reality. The Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador represents and supports our people, supporting this motion, supporting this voice that these people have and their human rights. Until the rights of our nationalities are respected. Our ancestral history tells that we have died while being ignored and we have died while being discriminated, this is what our parents and ancestors endured, now this is the same story for us, and more than 525 years of struggle we continue with it.
Today we support the Sapara nationality and the Shiwiar nationalities that are making these block 86 and 87 clearly known as their territories. When the minister of hydrocarbons, Carlos Perez declared that there are no indigenous people in these territories, that there are no communities, what a deception? Clearly, the territories of our communal people are on these blocks and are deeply affected. The Shiwiar nationality, if not also up to Kichwa nationality in this case, CONAIE are supporting these communities. We are vigilant, of rights of our nationalities and communities that you think you can buy and take from us. Remember, that our work is to defend the cosmovision and world view of the people’s of the nationalities. We are the guardians of CONAIE, so that these requests, and our territories remain protected. You cannot just walk into them, you need to respect and acknowledge the rights of the peoples nationalities. Thank you so much.
Julian, Spokesperson for the Achuar Nationality of Ecuador-
Where we are is in Morona Santiago, Thanks to all of the nationalities united here today, Nema Grefa, Andrés Tapia, Edison Gualinga, the Shiwiar, and others who are supporting us. The Achuar nationality would like to reject block 86 which are affecting our and threatening to damage the territories of the Shiwiar and Saparo communities and also it is not only affecting their territories, but also our Achuar territory. This is because our communities are adjoining the Shiwiar nationality. Therefore we say no to oil, wood and mining companies who cannot enter, therefore in the interest of the preservation of our united nationalities and territories, the Achuar’s is you are welcome if you want to help us preserve the forest and ourselves, then welcome, let us be gentle with the forest of our ancestors anchors, who are living in these territories. The oil companies do not have any business for development here in the Amazon, they have simply left contamination in nature every where they have been, this is the reason we reject their presence. So, therefore, we will continue to support these nationalities, which are understood by oil companies. Therefore, the president, Lenin Moreno, has to understand, they have to respect the decisions of the nationalities, also the minister Carlos Perez, of hydrocarbons, has to understand this, because we live with our own plans for life. With our own cosmovision in our territories, fulfilling our life plans, which is the profound project of each nationality. That has always been how we are united here, united by the nationalities to defend this territory. Thank you
The minister of hydrocarbons, Carlos Perez who made a declaration regarding the oil blocks 86 and 87, said there would be minimal impact in these blocks because there are no communities there. We reject this statement, made without foundation, we know the dynamics of the communities. In this case, what communities are present in these blocks?
Well, to start with the Shiwiar territory is in Block 86, consisting of four communities, also Juinitsa, and the Sapara territory, the Achuar national territory in block 85, and in block 87, and Jaco Jaco community that is Kichwa. Therefore, the declaration of Perez is a statement that has no fundementality and logically is only made for the obvious interest of the oil companies that seek to exploit these oil blocks. The other side of our lack of agreement, of the state of the reality of the life is of the nationalities, in our communities, each one of us have plans for life and plans in a fluent manner. Our our cultures exist, consisting of people, communities, relatives, families, men and women. There are territories of the best preserved areas of rainforest and biodiversity hotspots with our nationalities acting as guardians of the forest and preserving them, Achuar, Shiwiar, Sappora and Kichwa have our own plans to maintain conservation. This is what we wish to express for the struggle of our nationalities when we face exploitation.
Secondly, we want to express our total support to the nationalities in Pastaza for these special three nationals, Shiwiar, Sappara and Achuar who at this moment are giving their rare press appearance, to make this appeal. The 7 nationalities of Pastaza and the 10 organizations of Pastaza and in Morona Santiago, on the 23 of October in Quito outside the Marriott hotel, with the presidents of Confeniae, Conaie expressed their resounding rejection of the bidding of oil blocks in the south-eastern Amazon. Now the presidents say, what are the solution we can build for the Kichwa and Pastaza congress. Fittingly,the Kichwa nationality wish to keep their territory free of environmental pollution. The way our 7 nationalities are in Pastaza is very emphatic that this exploration is not realized.
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– Finally, let us address Lenin Moreno’s government, what we know the minister is not going to repel back at our appeal, we address the Republican president and we want to know what kind of activity, prospector, socialization, to be very clear of the we were not given a prior consultation process, there is no knowledge of any type of socialization with our communities, or have there been no prior consultation with these affected communities, in this area, and as a result of this they are directly outraged. If we continue our national and international denunciation, like last week when we presented this, open letter to the public. So let’s do it and take action internationally as well as nationally. No more concession for oil and mining companies in the Amazon. We will continue to defend our territories. Thank you
The Ecological Value of the Amazon Rainforest.
The global reliance on oil makes all of us responsible for doing something to protect the Amazon, since the world’s dependence on petroleum is one of the major causes of its rapid destruction, which again means the decisions for its conservation measures lay with the international community, not just with the Ecuadorian government or with the other countries that the Amazon occupies. Rainforests are the basis for more than 5,000 internationally consumed products from herbal medicines, cures for cancer and popular food sources, furniture and clothing.
In terms of time, it took 3,500 million years for the Amazon rainforest to evolve and grow into the species-rich biodiversity hotspot wonder of the world. If it is destroyed, then it is gone forever, nothing can replicate or replace that, short of another 3,500 million human-free years. The western part of the Amazon Basin is one of the richest biodiversity hotspots in the world; the level of biodiversity in the Ecuadorian Amazon is especially astounding. Just to put it into perspective, Yasuni national park contains around 600 species of birds and 170 species of mammals, 1,100 species of trees all in one quarter square kilometre area, and that is more species than in all of the U.S. and Canada, combined. Most people do not realise that much of the carbon released when a rainforest is destroyed is in the peat soil below the trees, it is not just in the trees but most of it is in the peat soils below which store thousands of tons of carbon, so they are invaluable carbon sinks, below the trees and this is key to help to regulating the climate. This means when deforestation occurs, all the carbon that was previously locked up in the peat soil below the rainforest is released into the atmosphere.
The Convention on Biological Diversity states that the Amazon contains more than 50 percent of the world’s plant and animal species. We must not discount the value of its undiscovered secrets for medical science and for humankind, as already, people are discovering plant-based cures for cancer that come from rainforest plants, there are over 60,000 plant species in the Amazon and only 3 percent have been studied for medicinal properties. Many of our foods come from the rainforest along with other important materials. There are thousands of undiscovered species of plants and animals still in existence, but we are destroying them at a pace which is faster than we are discovering them. Therefore, everyone’s opinion and actions are relevant and play on important role in defending this key ecosystem, as its devastation will be the devastation of all of us if we do not step in to defend what remains of the Amazon Rainforest.
If you wish to publish parts of this article else where please reference the source link to this page and to this article, I also can provide Spanish Transcripts. Thank you.
Fifty million indigenous people live in the world’s remaining forests and 370 million Indigenous people live in various different threatened wildernesses and ecological biomes across the world. We need to take into consideration their defence treaties for the last natural wildernesses that they occupy on the Earth. I have found that working on conservation of the land with indigenous people involves dealing with many of the front line issues that the larger established charities, governments and academic institutes know little about. One common example in the Amazonia regions of South America, is the ongoing internalized governmental corruption where some government connected corporations provide finances and arms to vigilantes to attack indigenous environmental activist leaders and drive indigenous people forcefully off of their land. If governments in Amazon region countries gave more protection and powers to indigenous leaders and reinforced heavy prosecution on such cases, these incidents would be discouraged but instead they are conveniently overlooked and such activities are increasing with corporate land grabs and violations of indigenous people’s rights to critical escalation in Ecuador, Brazil, Peru and Colombia.
Many indigenous communities live solely off of the land, many live in isolated regions that are difficult to access, therefore most are not money motivated or materialistic in the way Westerners are and this goes in their favour to be the world’s best and most trusted conservationists. Their lives depend on the preservation and conservation of their ancestral land, not on money. Their connection with the environment is not just dependent on daily living, it is part of their spiritual ancestry, their spiritual ecology, part of their souls and beating hearts. This is what we have forgotten in Western civilization.
Therefore, they are the best conservationists to manage and conserve the forests and last great wildernesses, as their immediate survival depends on the land and they are attuned to the environment around them, because of this, they are also the most vulnerable when it comes to ecocide, their cultures and survival is ultimately threatened. Read my previous article People on the Edge of Extinction-The Last Tribes of the Amazon
There are indigenous conservation treaty recommendations supported by many Indian and Alaskan Native organisations. A recent convention set up by the Indigenous peoples of all the Americas allowed them to form sixteen principles for building a sustainable and harmonious world community.
This emerged from a 40-year-long process of reflection, consultation and action within Indigenous communities across the Americas. These principles are rooted in the concerns of hundreds of Indigenous Elders, Spiritual Leaders and Community Members, they are also rooted in deep ecology values, they recognise the interconnectedness of all life on Earth and how we affect one another and the Earth with our actions. They recognise how humans must work on internal balance to create external balance and a sustainable world. They recognise the importance of morals, and ethics in communities. These guiding principles constitute the foundation for the process of healing and developing ourselves (mentally, emotionally, physically, and spiritually), our human relationships (personal, social, political, economic, and cultural) and our relationship with Mother Earth.
The senseless annihilation of the Earth’s last rainforests is part of an ecosystem, not only providing vital equilibrium for the climate but also plant medicines and foods and resources everyone takes for granted. Corporate ecocide has to stop along with the global unfolding ecocide of other ancient wildernesses where our great indigenous people remain.
The above poster illustrates the ecological goods and services from the rainforest, it was made in 2012 by my friend Samuel Remerand, a French Biologist and teacher, to educate adults and children in the West on the ecological goods and services that the Amazon rainforest provides for its people. Samuel Remerand, came all the way to Ecuador to work with the Shiwiar people and took thousands of photos. We stayed for 3 weeks with the Shiwiar people of the Ecuadorian Amazon, deep in a remote part of the Amazon, which is only accessible by an apache airplane, it took a 1 and a half hour flight over the Ecuadorian Amazon to reach the Shiwiar territory,
Here is a video of some of our experiences when we were there.
All this senseless destruction of the Amazon rainforest, is for gold, or minerals and a non-renewable fuel, Petroleum, the black life blood of Pacha Mama herself, valued over human life and all life on planet Earth. How many of us have to suffer and to what limit of destruction will this planet be pushed to, before we realise human consciousness is now an ecological issue? Humanity is a threat to itself unless we change the way we live on this planet, we have to live with nature, not separate from her, we are our environment, we are nature.
Read these Sixteen Guiding Principles from The Four World’s National Institute they offer these Guiding Principles as a gift to all who seek to build a sustainable and harmonious Global community.
El mapa anterior muestra claramente que los reclamos de Carlos Pérez están desocupados y, por lo tanto, causarían un impacto mínimo, de hecho, están ocupados por los Achuar, Shiwiar, Sapora y Kichwa.
