Climate Change
Who Has the Right to Decide What Happens on Indigenous Lands?
In Ecuador, Indigenous communities are fighting for stronger safeguards to protect their sovereignty as more oil drilling looms. A right to say no to unwanted development could revolutionize consultation processes used around the world.
Members of the Indigenous Waorani village of Kiwaro looked skyward as a helicopter hovered over the rainforest canopy in the center of Ecuador and landed in a nearby clearing. Out stepped government officials, there to inform the community about an impending auction of oil rights on their land.
Who Has the Right to Decide What Happens on Indigenous Lands?