Ecuador is one of the most biodiverse places in the world. From the Amazon rainforest, Andean highlands, coastal mangroves to the cloud forests. It harbours more than two thirds of the world’s biodiversity. At the same time, there are several problems associated with the violation on human rights of the communities that inhabit all these ecosystems.
These communities have been victims of the serious devastating consequences caused by mining, oil spills and other industries. In addition, the lack of environmental education triggers several problems such as the accumulation of garbage and poor solid waste management.
In line with this framework, Caritas Ecuador accompanies the processes of advocacy in the territories affected by oil and mining extractivism and by the contamination of garbage dumps. Through advocacy, local communities can come together to identify common needs and organise themselves to influence public policy decisions.
In the Ecuadorian Amazon, more than 20,000 barrels of oil have been spilled and is affecting more than 150 communities. In response, Caritas supported 12 Kichwa communities with environmental, legal and humanitarian assistance.
Affected residents say that the oil spills destroyed everything. According to Vincente Pauchi, a San Pablo resident in Orellana, “The last spill is the worst because it destroyed all the nature of the river, the biodiversity. It killed the fish, everything in the river.”
Seberia Grefa from Playas del Rio Tigre in Sucumbios adds, “Children get sick a lot, they all down with vomiting, with diarrhoea. Get a fever, get the flu. There is no way to live here.”
Over 400 gas lighters burn day and night releasing toxic gases through their torches. When raining, this gas descends to the ground and seriously contaminates the fauna and flora, as well as causing cancer to people.
The citizen campaign “Against the lighters of death” was developed in 2016. Caritas and other organisations participated in this campaign, and a protection action was achieved in 2021 to turn off the lighters. However, to this day, this sentence has not yet been fulfilled.
In the north, south and in the Amazon regions of Ecuador, mining companies have damaged nature and violated human rights of communities living near the Anzu and Jatunyaku rivers, tributaries of the Napo river, and in the poorer sectors of Esmereldas such as San Lorenzo.
Mining has damaged the land and poisoned the water of the rivers. The Santiago river and the Cayapas river each have around 100 tributaries. However, “all water streams are not suitable for human use and neither for animals,” says Jose Ponce from Borbon in Esmereldas.
The mining companies dump mercury, other heavy metals, and garbage into rivers systems. Families who live by the river cannot feed themselves, drink the water, or use it for bathing because it is polluted. “In many cases they use mercury and other metals like borax, for example, and this goes into the water,” says Daniel Robles from Tena in Napo.
To date, Caritas has accompanied around 5,000 families throughout training processes and other activities aimed at empowering communities them to defend and demand their rights. In Orellana, Caritas supported communities in La Paz, El Oro, Los Laurele and Seis de Octubre with a protection action presented to the Orellana provincial court. The court accepted the action.