Oil Drilling Impacts Indigenous Peoples in Ecuador

The A’ingae, or Cofan people, have lived between the Aguarico and Guamués rivers for centuries, long before the foundation of the Republics of Ecuador and Colombia, from the Azuela river up to the middle section of the Aguarico basin, and up to present-day Puerto Asís. The Cofan territory was next to the communities of the Siona and Tetetes nations. Long ago, the Cofan people amounted to 15,000 inhabitants (Ingita Gi A'indeccu'fa, 2002), and now, according to the information of the Federation of the Cofan Nation of Ecuador, there are only 162 families with a total of 849 people.

According to CODENPE (Consejo de Desarrollo de las Nacionalidades y Pueblos del Ecuador – Council for the Development of Ecuador’s Peoples and Nations), Ecuador’s COFAN Nation is now in the province of Sucumbios, on the Aguarico river and in the middle section of the Dureno and Cuyabeno river basins; the main settlements are Dovino, Dureno, Sinangüe, Chandia Na’en and Zábalo.

Read more about oil impacts to indigenous peoples of Ecuador here.