The Amazon's Last Stand: Ecuador's Indigenous Communities Fight the New Oil Rush
Modernizing the sector, attracting foreign investment and increasing production: these are the cornerstones of what has been called the “hydrocarbons roadmap”, a national strategy presented in August by Ecuador ’s Ministry of Energy and Mines, which focuses on 49 new oil and gas projects , worth more than 47 billion dollars .
This strategy, however, is encountering strong opposition from indigenous peoples , as they accuse the project of violating their constitutional rights and ignoring the referendum on Yasuní Park , in which 59% of citizens voted to leave the oil underground. Specifically, according to indigenous leaders, 18 of the proposed blocks overlap with their territories, an area the size of Belgium . "The government wants to proceed without our consent, violating the Constitution and the Court's rulings," accuses Nemo Guiquita , Waorani leader of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of the Ecuadorian Amazon.
Despite this, President Daniel Noboa , in office since 2023, has not only supported the abolition of the Ministry of the Environment, but has also promoted a law allowing private individuals and foreign investors to co-manage protected areas , effectively reducing guarantees for local communities and aiming to increase extraction. New auctions have already been open since 2025, and others are planned in the Amazon and sub-Andean regions by 2026.
Seven indigenous peoples of the Ecuadorian Amazon have risen up against this plan, denouncing that the project threatens their ancestral lands , violates constitutional protections and ignores the right to free, prior and informed consent, guaranteed by international law.
Significantly, the protest is linked to another, seemingly opposing, protest that has been shaking the country in recent months: the national strike against cuts to diesel subsidies , which weigh heavily on the most vulnerable segments of the population. On the one hand, therefore, there is a demand for community rights against fossil fuel extraction ; on the other, a demand for social and economic justice . The two issues, however, are only apparently unrelated. Upon closer inspection, they are actually two sides of the same coin, because the protest is against an economic model that continues to rely on fossil fuels without guaranteeing either social justice or environmental protection.
In northeastern Ecuador, among other things, the invasive and highly impactful technique of gas flaring is particularly widespread. This process involves burning gases derived from oil extraction in the open air. These gases contain over 250 highly carcinogenic toxins . Since these perpetual fires are mostly located near villages or schools , it's easy to imagine the consequences they can have on people living in the surrounding areas, on rivers, animals, plants, and the air.
In particular, since river water is too contaminated to be drunk, most families collect rainwater for daily consumption which, however, when in contact with deposited particles, becomes contaminated, causing serious health problems .
Oil extraction also often causes serious environmental disasters, as happened last March, when Ecuador's Emergency Operations Committee (COE) declared an environmental emergency following the rupture of the Trans-Ecuadorian Oil Pipeline (SOTE), which caused a large oil spill in the province of Esmeraldas, in the northwest of the South American country.
Fortunately, something is moving internationally as well: in the United States , the California Senate has approved a resolution to analyze the state's role as a major purchaser of Amazonian crude oil . This too is a sign of how the organization of production and economic processes is a central issue not only for those concerned with social justice, but also for those who defend environmental justice and the fate of planet Earth.
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