INTERVIEW- Amazon’s indigenous Waorani people call for direct access to funds at COP27

Waorani, aka Waos, are indigenous people who live in the Amazon rainforests of eastern Ecuador. In May 2019, the ethnicity in Pastaza won a legal case against the Ecuadorian government’s plan to extract oil over 0.5 million acres of their land in the Amazon and also blocked the authorities’ attempt to auction 7.5 million acres to oil drilling companies, Amazon Frontlines reported.

Opi Nenquimo travelled more than 12,000 miles from Ecuador to the 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27) in Egypt’s Sharm El-Sheikh to represent his own ethnicity, the 6,000 Waorani indigenous people of the Amazon who possess “the spirit of the jaguar”, by speaking loudly about his clan’s suffering from the impacts of climate change and the government’s lack of action to enable them and empower them financially.

In an interview with Jusoor Post, Nenquimo spoke in more details about how the minority indigenous people are struggling to uphold their rights to protection of their nature and environment away from the government’s “destructive activities” and to having direct access to financing.

Q: First of all, could you speak briefly about your ethnicity?

A: We have been in the Amazon for centuries. My grandparents have lived on this Earth that is the jungle. We have the biodiversity that provides us with all the food, water and other things. We are a people of dreams through the spirit of the jaguar. We are the ones who take care of the forest. We always fight against threats such as extractivism and oil.

Q: How is climate change affecting your community?

A: Climate change impacts in our country, especially in the Amazon, include heavy rains, inundation, change of seasons, much sun heat, and drought, [and even] the products we have are not the same as before; the crops are dry, and the fish die in the rivers because the sun is strong and warms up in the lagoons.

Q: Did you receive any assistance from the government to tackle climate change impacts? Or how did the government react to any possible climate change threat your community or ethnicity could face?

A: The government of Ecuador doesn’t want to support [fighting] climate change impacts. So far, they only support the destructive activities of mining, searching for oil, gas and gold. They are invading the indigenous people’s territories. The government is killing the people of communities under the idea of development. 

There is no direct financial support from the government. However, money goes to municipalities that order building schools and infrastructure.

The government and municipalities should get permission from the indigenous communities to extract their resources. That is why the indigenous people don’t want to have contact with the government, because they are doing activities that harm nature and the environment. 

For indigenous people, this is important to [grant] consent to the activities, and the government should respect the right to prior consent and seek permission.

Q: How do you mitigate and adapt to the climate change crisis? What are your solutions to this crisis when it comes to protecting forests, soil, and water?

A: Indigenous people have not changed their way of living, as it is the way of protecting the environment. This is how the elderly people taught them to live in a balance with nature.

Q: Indigenous people's practices and environmental behavior are acknowledged by several scientific platforms to be crucial to scale-up climate action. What do the indigenous people need from the international arena to enrich the spread of their practices and knowledge?

A: One of the first necessary things is that the world should know, learn, understand and respect how indigenous people take care of nature. The second thing is that the indigenous people have solutions to the biggest challenges that humanity has at the moment like, what happened during the COVID-19 pandemic, as it was [for indigenous people] like a normal flu and only few people died, because they were using specific plants that enhance their immunity.

It is important also to recognize the right of indigenous people to their lands and territories.

Q: According to several indigenous leaders, colonialism was the root problem of climate change. Is it too late now to deal with the root problem?

A: No, because we still have the opportunity to ask all those governments for urgent actions to tackle climate change. We should stop all these discussions of the COP27 and go beyond to action here if the parties do not have the will to change. It is necessary to have a united front between parties, indigenous people, and stakeholders.

Q: What kind of technology do indigenous people need to increase their involvement in climate action?

A: Indigenous people are already using some technologies to monitor their lands and forests from foreigners [as a form of protection] like using GPS, cameras and drones. They also monitor with satellite maps to see any changes in their forests and environment like rivers and to know what is going on, because we are talking about climate change. 

It is important to have evidence that when people talk about mitigation, we have some examples [for that]. We have solar energy, but it is also too expensive for us. We ask for renewable energy that makes us more sustainable. 

Some communities are using gasoline-powered generators for electricity, so we need to change this to more sustainable and eco-friendly. 

We do not have dams, as we don’t want to be part of big projects.

Q: Why are you participating in the COP27 discussions while talks are being held amid a lack of action? And what is your message to the leaders gathering here?

A: Yes, there are only discussions, but it is really important for the indigenous people to be here, because the world has to know that we are the only ones who care for the forests and we give oxygen to the world.

It is also important for us to know other indigenous people, to be close to their position and do advocacy with them.

We, all the indigenous peoples of the world, are here to tell the governments to respect our rights and let us live, because we need to live. It is important for us to make an alliance to know this whole process and evaluate the decisions that the governments are taking here.

For indigenous people, it is important to have direct access to funds as a fundamental discussion. If we do not have the support and the funds, we cannot overcome the climate change crisis.