Amazon Indigenous Women Witness Oil Contamination in Ecuador Warning Tour

Indigenous women from Ecuador's Amazon region participated in a guided tour of contaminated oil fields to witness environmental damage firsthand. The 'toxitour' aimed to show women from areas facing new drilling proposals what decades of oil extraction has done to communities in the north.

NUEVA LOJA, Ecuador (AP) — Next to a waterway blackened by petroleum contamination in Ecuador’s northern Amazon rainforest, an Indigenous leader expressed dismay as she observed the dark film floating on the surface and damaged infrastructure cutting through the woodland. Gas flames blazed overhead beyond the forest canopy.

Seventy-six-year-old Julia Catalina Chumbi, a prominent figure from the Shuar people in Pastaza province’s southern Amazon region, had journeyed great distances to witness the destruction firsthand — the aftermath of many years of petroleum extraction in northeastern Sucumbios province.

“Everything is contaminated, even the air,” she remarked softly.

She had just discovered something that deeply disturbed her. In settlements surrounding the petroleum facilities in Sucumbios, local people cannot safely consume water from nearby waterways and must purchase bottled water due to pollution concerns and health risks.

“Seeing this makes me want to cry,” she expressed, noting that waterways in her homeland remain safe for drinking.

Chumbi joined approximately 30 Indigenous women from throughout Ecuador’s Amazon basin who journeyed to this region for what advocates term a toxitour, examining petroleum facilities, transport infrastructure and gas burning locations to observe environmental and health consequences of resource extraction directly. Event coordinators explained the expedition sought to connect women from regions threatened by potential petroleum developments with settlements that have coexisted with the industry for generations. Since numerous extraction zones overlap with Indigenous lands, these communities frequently experience initial contamination of waterways, forests and food supplies.

The participants — representing seven Indigenous settlements — convened for multiple days in Nueva Loja city for educational sessions to exchange experiences and address the expanding threat of petroleum development in their homelands.

Nueva Loja is commonly called Lago Agrio, a designation given by employees from American petroleum company Texaco during the 1960s, referencing the Texas petroleum town of Sour Lake. This settlement subsequently became the hub of Ecuador’s early Amazon petroleum expansion.

The group traveled by bus, observing countless petroleum pipelines threading alongside roadways. Their target was the Libertador petroleum facility, managed by Ecuador’s government oil corporation Petroecuador. Upon arrival, they created protest signs for their march, including one declaring: “Amazon free from oil and mining.” The Associated Press observed as they quietly accessed portions of the petroleum production zone to witness impacts directly. Contaminated waterways flowed near pipelines and drilling locations, plant life showed signs of pollution and animal life was conspicuously missing.

Standing before a thunderous gas flame, Salome Aranda, 43, from the Kichwa settlement of Morete Cocha in central Amazon Pastaza province, displayed traditional facial decorations across her face.

Aranda explained the visit enabled her to observe damage she rarely witnesses near petroleum operations in her own region.

“In our area we are not allowed to enter,” she stated.

Observing the contamination directly validated worries she already harbored regarding petroleum activity near her settlement.

“The animals are disappearing and the crops no longer grow the same,” she noted.

Following the expedition, the women returned to Nueva Loja, spending extensive time in educational sessions and group conversations reflecting on their observations and sharing experiences from their territories. By the conclusion of meetings, they had started developing strategies to strengthen opposition to potential new petroleum concessions in their regions.

“Women in the north have already lived through more than 50 years of oil exploitation,” Natalia Yepes, a legal adviser for Amazon Watch in Ecuador, told AP at the workshop. “The idea is that those experiences and lessons can be shared with women from the center and south who are now facing these new threats.”

Last year, Ecuador’s administration announced an extensive “hydrocarbon road map” proposing significant expansion of the nation’s petroleum and gas industry, valued at approximately $47 billion and new licensing opportunities for exploration zones in the Amazon and additional regions. Many are situated in Pastaza and Napo provinces, where Indigenous settlements exist.

Government representatives claim the strategy aims to modernize the industry, attract international investment and increase petroleum production.

However, environmental organizations and Indigenous leadership argue the developments could expose vast rainforest areas to drilling, pipelines and gas burning. They also caution that numerous communities have not provided the free, prior and informed consent mandated under Ecuador’s constitution and international human rights treaties.

Ecuador’s Ministry of Energy and Mines did not respond to a request for comment.

The discussion regarding fossil fuel expansion in the Amazon will likely be featured at an international conference in Santa Marta, Colombia, this April. The gathering will unite governments, Indigenous leadership and civil society organizations to explore pathways for transitioning away from oil, gas and coal following last year’s U.N. climate summit in Belem, Brazil.

For some participants in the expedition, the visit reinforced struggles they already face at home.

Dayuma Nango, 39, vice president of the Association of Waorani Women of Ecuador, said the contamination she observed strengthened her resolve to prevent petroleum companies from entering Waorani territory.

“Our forest is our mother,” said Nango, who has received death threats for her advocacy. “That’s why we protect it.”

The Waorani have previously battled major petroleum developments in Ecuador’s Amazon. In 2019, Indigenous leadership secured a significant court victory that prevented petroleum drilling in Block 22 in Pastaza after judges determined the government failed to properly consult communities as mandated under Ecuadorian law. In a separate 2023 decision, Ecuadorian voters approved a referendum to stop petroleum drilling in Block 43 within Yasuní National Park, an area that overlaps with Waorani ancestral territory.

After observing the pollution in Sucumbios, Nango said she worries her community could face similar consequences if new developments proceed.

“We don’t want to live the same story that our brothers and sisters are living here,” she stated.

Toa Alvarado, 30, a Kichwa leader from Pastaza province, said the visit also strengthened her determination to defend her territory. She remembered how her deceased father, a longtime community leader, once stood in a roadway holding a spear to prevent gold miners from accessing their land.

“He told me our generation may be the last with the chance to protect our territories from contamination,” she recalled.

The next day, many women who participated in the toxitour assembled in the Amazon city of Puyo for International Women’s Day demonstrations.

“Today is about reporting to the world about the violation of rights that us Indigenous women have to endure — specifically the rights of nature,” said Ruth Peñafiel, 59, from a Kichwa community in Ecuador’s northern Amazon.

“We want to live in a healthy environment and in harmony with the forest,” she stated.

For Chumbi, the visit to Sucumbios reinforced the message she plans to deliver to her Shuar community, located deep in the Amazon.

“What we are going to do is fight,” she declared, referring to the possibility of petroleum drilling in her territory. “Even if it costs us our lives.”