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.