Waorani leader  Alicia Cahuiya standing next to a tree near her community marked to be cut down by Petroecuador, the company now banned from drilling in Yasuní National Park.

Ecuador votes to keep oil in the soil

On August 20th fifty-eight per cent of Ecuadorians voted to stop all current and future drilling in three oil fields inside the Yasuni National Park and sixty-eight per cent voted to block mining in the Choco Andino Forest.

Liz Downes, Coordinator of the Ecuador Endangered Campaign at the Rainforest Information Centre discusses the significance of these decisions, environmental democracy in Ecuador and the campaign to stop the drilling.

https://www.rainforestinformationcentre.org/ecuador_endangered

Music

Song for the Forests of Yasuni by Indigenous activist and defender Alex Lucitante

Lluvia by Mateo Kingman, a singer-songwriter of Ecuadorian Amazonian music that fuses traditional Latin American sounds with hip-hop, rock, and pop.

Photo

Alicia Cahuiya, a prominent Waorani leader and vice president of the women's branch of CONAIE (Ecuador's National Indigenous Federation). Photo provided by Liz Downes.

Earth Matters #1421

Producer: Judith Peppard