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Submission, 1 April 2002 Kichwa, Sarayacu, ECUADOR Contact Info Sarayacu Community: Karen Marrero & Juan Gualinga Sarayacu International Representatives Email: Sarayacuinfo2@yahoo.com (email is best way to contact) Mailing Address in U.S.: 400 Ft. Washington Avenue Apt#6A N.Y., N.Y. 10033 U.S. phone: 212-781-1462 Ecuador phone: 03-883-875 Statement received May 5, 2002 Dear Companions, We are happy to have this opportunity to present ourselves to you for consideration as a Sacred Site. At the same time, we also send our greetings and cordial regards to you. Sarayacu is an indigenous Amazon Kichwa community found in the Province of Pastaza in the central Amazon Rainforest region of Ecuador in South America. The population consists of 2,000 inhabitants organized within 5 centers. Our territory encompasses 200,000 hectares (approximately 908,000 acres) of highly fragile virgin rainforest in which we have lived in harmony with for hundreds of years. Our community is located about 100 km away from the nearest town, we live the traditional way of life taught by our ancestors, fishing, hunting, agriculture and recollection of nuts and fruits; we have no electricity, no running water on tap, none so-called 'modern' amenities. We have no roads to our community, access is only by a 3 day canoe trip or half hour by plane. We have our own form of government and traditional organization. Sarayacu is known in the Amazon as the wellspring of sacred sites, plant medicines, traditional healers, culture and arts. The current problematic and grave threat to our lives, our culture and our environment lies with the fact that an Oil Company, CGC, wants to ingress on our land by any means possible in order to exploit the resources of petroleum oil that lie beneath our land surface. Our very lives are tied to the land, as we depend on it for our very sustenance, both physical and spiritual. Sarayacu territory contains many sacred sites, lagoons and waterfalls, as you can see from the maps included. Our ancestral territory is a fountain of biodiversity. It is an area characterized by major deposits of lagoons that give origin to the rivers named Shiona, Corientes, Pucayacu, and Rotuno. These rivers are affluents of the great Amazon River and are considered highly sacred as a last reserve and refuge of the social and spiritual life of our Yachacs (traditional medicine men/women) as well as the Kichwa Peoples of Sarayacu. Within these special sacred places live the spiritual beings. These being clearly can be seen by our elders, the"yachajs", and others who follow purifications. Destructive activities such as oil exploitation will also inevitably result in the death of these beings that are so integral to these Sacred Sites. CGC Oil Company currently has a campaign of coercement, bribery, division, outright aggression and violence to force Sarayacu, as well as the surrounding communities, to submit to their exploitation. If the oil drilling takes place, in addition to the destruction of the sacred sites, there will be massive contamination, highways built by dynamite & bulldozers, foreign diseases, epidemics, loss of animal habitats, and cultural destruction. Oil company activity will literally pave the way to lumbering, land clearing, ranching, prostitution and taking over of native lands by colonists. The side effects of the contamination will result in dead rivers of undrinkable water with no fish for food and land that will not produce. This already have been the proven effects of oil exploitation in communities in the northern provinces who incidentally now also suffer high rates of cancer and strange diseases. Not to mention the loss of animal habitats and breeding grounds. This will all take place on what is still now pure untouched rainforest land, who only so far knows of our respectful footsteps. We consider the oil to be like the blood of the Earth, if we take this blood out how will the Earth survive? How are we as a peoples to survive? Sarayacu is reknown as a strong community, a leader, however, it needs your help to be protected and maintain a development in harmony with the rainforest. Sarayacu has legal right to its territories, won after a long 230km march by foot to the Capital in1992, however, it did not gain subsurface rights. That means that whatever is under the surface of the soil belongs to the government who can give concessions to private oil companies. We have successfully delayed the ingression of the Oil Company CGC so far for 5 years. Previously, we have not allowed the company Arco who also wanted to exploit our sacred land for oil. However, we are growing more and more desperate as their attempts continue to escalate in pressure and aggressiveness. It has currently been announced that the Oil Company will enter with the help of the military. We want our lands to be declared "intangible" and "protected" due to the sacred sites, culture, biodiversity and being one of the few last regions of yet undestroyed land in Ecuador. The issue of our lands being declared "intangible" and a "protected site" is actually on our list of formal community agreements since the year 2000. We believe that with your help and our proven compromise, together we can protect this Sacred Site for time immemorial. We ask Sarayacu Territory be eligible as sacred site considering the following:
We petition that Sarayacu Territory of the
Amazon Rainforest being considered by many, the "Lungs of the Earth",
should be taken care of by all since it is a generator of pure air not
just for the Kichwa, but for all those who inhabit the Earth.
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