Indigenous Groups Get Legal Boost to Defend and Protect Their Land

In Ecuador, two indigenous groups have a legal ground to defend their land against development projects since the country’s top court ruled in their favor, and actions are being taken to keep any harmful activity at bay and preserve their ancestral territory.

“The ruling set a precedent,” explains Jorge Acero, a lawyer for the advocacy group Amazon Frontlines that supports the Cofan. “It can be applied to any indigenous group, and judges across the region are taking note.”

Since 2018, both the Cofan and the Waorani – one living in the northern rainforest village of Sinangoe, the other in the eastern Amazon province of Pastaza – gained the right to block development projects as the judicial authorities ruled that they weren’t consulted, in advance and in full, about the said projects, giving the ground to object to them. This led to the suspension of 52 formal gold mining concessions for up to 30 years granted across 32,000 hectares of their ancestral land, as those concessions were seen as violating indigenous communities’ right to a healthy environment, based on the “rights of nature” laws in Ecuador’s amended constitution from 2008, meant to protect rivers and ecosystems.