<
https://news.mongabay.com/2024/01/historic-land-win-for-ecuadors-siekopai-sets-precedent-for-other-indigenous-groups/>
"After winning a historic lawsuit, an Indigenous community in Ecuador has
finally obtained legal ownership of its land in a protected area — 80 years
since being forcibly displaced. According to experts, this new ruling may
change the approach communities use to obtain their ancestral lands in Ecuador,
and the country may see more communities filing similar lawsuits to obtain
lands locked away for state conservation.
Ecuador now recognizes the 42,360-hectare (104,674-acre) ancestral Pë’këya
territory in the northeast of the Ecuadorian Amazon, which is also home to some
of the most biodiverse ecosystems on the planet, as under the legal ownership
of the Indigenous Siekopai nation.
The decision by the provincial court of Sucumbíos means that the Siekopai
people now have legal rights to the place where their ancestors are buried. It
also means the community is free to sustainably manage the local natural
resources as it sees fit.
“This does not imply that the ministry of environment should not monitor
deforestation or river pollution in our territory,” Justino Piaguaje, a
Siekopai leader, told
Mongabay. “Obviously, the ministry has that
responsibility. But above all, we exercise control over our territory.”
Jorge Acero, a human rights defender and Amazon Frontlines lawyer who
represented the Siekopai in court, told
Mongabay that the rules of use for a
protected area have always been established by the Ministry of Environment and
Water. But now, for the first time, the ministry will have to respect the
decision-making capacity of a community to self-determine its own management
plans.
The forests are an integral part of Siekopai culture, leaders say, and
communities have experience trying to protect them using camera traps, drones
and studies, to monitor impacts from extractive industries on biodiversity
loss. Once their management plan is established, the Siekopai will sit down
with the ministry and ask for any technical advice, Acero said."
Via
Future Crunch:
<
https://futurecrunch.com/good-news-cancer-canada-elephants-africa-batteries-china/>
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
