Indigenous communities have won a 12-month moratorium on all new oil and gas projects in Ecuador. This follows a year of struggle between President Guillermo Lasso – who has been trying to open up the Amazon to more oil extraction and mining – and a movement led by Indigenous communities that has been resisting with strikes, protests and blockades (NI 539). In February 2022, a boost came from a Supreme Court ruling that Indigenous communities needed to give free, prior and informed consent before any development on their territories. Mass protests over the summer, led by groups including the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE), resulted in further government concessions and eventually an agreement was reached in September that no new oil extraction projects will be launched for at least one year.
Leonidas Iza, president of CONAIE, noted that although many important community demands had not yet been met, the deal had been reached thanks to ‘the pressure and force of the people in the streets.’1
