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‘It’s Seen by Indigenous Activists as a Template for Similar Confrontations Around the Globe’ - CounterSpin interview with Reynard Loki on indigenous oil victory
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Janine Jackson interviewed Reynard Loki about an indigenous environmental victory in Ecuador for the June 7, 2019, episode of CounterSpin. This is a lightly edited transcript.
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Janine Jackson: The story was brief but compelling: The indigenous Waorani in Ecuador were fighting to keep the government from auctioning off their land, and with it their lives and culture, to oil companies, and were actually being heard in court. A Waorani leader is cited, saying: “Our fight is not just a fight about oil. This is a fight about different ways of living, one that protects life and one that destroys life.”
Why didn’t I see what looks like a Reuters wire piece picked up in a major daily?, you might wonder. Then you see the tag at the bottom that explains that the article is from the Thomson Reuters Foundation, described as the “charitable arm” of Thomson Reuters, that covers “humanitarian news.” In other words, the fight over whether extractive industry is permitted to erase and endanger communities, as part of the despoiling of the region known as the lungs of the planet, is news—but not news news.
Joining us now to talk about a case that in reality brings together some of the most important questions of the day is Reynard Loki, editor and chief correspondent of the Earth | Food | Life project of the Independent Media Institute. He joins us now by phone from here in town. Welcome to CounterSpin, Reynard Loki.
Reynard Loki: Thanks for having me, Janine.
JJ: As you report in your recent article on this, which I first saw on Common Dreams, the fight between indigenous communities and oil companies in Ecuador has been going on for many years now. But this April 26 court ruling, and recent demonstrations in support of it, have reference to particular actions by Ecuador, going back to 2012. Can you just walk us through what the April ruling said, and some of the context in which it came?
Reynard Loki: “If this landmark ruling—and it is a landmark ruling, make no mistake—does hold up to appeal, then there will be a big celebration in Ecuador, and around the world, for those who support indigenous rights and the environment.”
RL: The April 26 ruling was by a three-judge panel in the Pastaza territory, which is where the Waorani people live, along with several other indigenous people. The Waorani actually sued three government bodies in Ecuador earlier this year—the Ministry of Energy and Non-Renewable Natural Resources, the secretary of Hydrocarbons and the Ministry of Environment—for basically undertaking what they claimed, successfully, were faulty consultations with their community, back in 2012, before the government listed their land for sale in an international oil auction.
Those consultations were held because the Ecuadorian constitution requires that indigenous people are given free, prior, informed consultation regarding plans or programs for prospecting and marketing non-renewable resources located on their land, which could have a cultural or environmental impact on them.
And the judges ruled that those consultations were improper; they were done in bad faith, they failed to properly inform the Waorani of the risks and impacts of the government’s plans to auction off their territory, and really didn’t take into consideration at all the different kinds of cultures and traditional decision-making methods that the Waorani and other indigenous people have, versus the Ecuadorian government’s version.
Basically, the auctioning off of those lots is indefinitely disrupted. However, it is a bit tentative, because I just heard today, actually, somebody at Amazon Frontlines, a nonprofit group in Ecuador that is working with the indigenous population there, that the appeal date has been set for July 1. So if this landmark ruling—and it is a landmark ruling, make no mistake—does hold up to appeal, then there will be a big celebration in Ecuador, and around the world, for those who support indigenous rights and the environment.
JJ: Let me just ask you about that consultation process. The Ecuadorian constitution, as you say, says that indigenous communities have a right to free, prior, informed consultation. And the ruling didn’t say just that the state didn’t, and oil companies didn’t, consult with Waorani, but that they sort of “fake consulted,” they sort of pretended to honor that responsibility, but then they didn’t, really.
But I just want to ask you, not even cynically, one would want to ask: Well, does “consultation,” even though it sounds very good, does it include the right to say no? Are we talking about preserving the right to consult, or preserving the right to oppose environmental destruction?
RL: That’s a great question. I think the answer to that question is going to be found out in the appeals process.
It is a bit vague-sounding in the constitution, it really just gives “free, prior and informed consultation,” known as FPIC, within a reasonable period of time. But if they can prove that the government plans for prospecting and marketing renewable resources that are located on their land, do have an environmental and cultural impact on them, it would probably run afoul of that piece of the constitution.
But your listeners may also be aware that Ecuador is very unique in the sense that they have now, since 2008 when they rewrote their constitution, they became the first country to recognize the rights of nature, constitutionally.
So really, they are, on one hand, on the cutting edge of protecting nature, nature rights, environmental conservation, constitutionally based. So that part has not been considered yet, to my knowledge, in the courts, but that could be a constitutional crisis on two fronts—not just the free, prior, informed consultation angle, but also the fact that it would be running afoul of protecting nature, and the rights of nature chapter in the constitution acknowledges that nature and all of its life forms has the right to persist and maintain and regenerate its vital cycles.
Oil production clearly does not allow for that, as we’ve seen in Ecuador, where oil has been being drilled since at least the late ’60s, when Texaco struck oil in the northeastern province there, but also in Peru, where studies have shown that oil production has led to dramatic and potentially permanent changes in the chemistry of the waters of the Amazon River.
So there are two constitutional frontiers within Ecuador, when it comes to trying to get oil from the ground. But there are also two other laws, there are international laws, that the lawyers for the Waorani and the other indigenous people could call upon. One is Convention 169 of the International Labour Organization, which was ratified by Ecuador in 1998, and the other is the UN Declaration of Rights of Indigenous People, which was adopted by Ecuador in 2007. Both of those agreements require signatories to consult with this indigenous population properly before touching their land.
JJ: It’s so fascinating, because in some ways, Ecuador is very special, the fact that you can have the environment named as a defendant in a court proceeding. And yet it’s cutting-edge. It’s not just unique; it’s kind of where the world is going, one would hope, in some ways. So I guess I would say, even though Ecuador is a special context, this still could be a meaningful precedent.
RL: Well, yeah, this could be a meaningful precedent, not only for Ecuador, but because this type of argument now can be used in this particular court case, it’s being seen by indigenous activists as a template that can be used in similar confrontations around the globe.
JJ: There was a piece in the New Yorker by Rachel Riederer, but in general, US corporate media had crickets on this story that is so important. Independent, smaller, noncommercial media was really where it’s at, despite the high-profile palaver we hear from elite media about climate disruption.
And for myself, I think it’s partly because, not to put too fine a point on it, the climate of corporate media is one in which indigenous people who can end a court proceeding by singing, as the Waorani have done, are ultimately an unserious anachronism. And corporations getting what they want is, in this climate, an ultimately benign inevitability.
And I would say that the changes needed to protect the Waorani, to protect the Amazon, to protect the planet and all of us—they’re also changes about what stories we tell right and who we listen to.
RL: Yeah, that’s a great point you bring up, Janine, and obviously something that your organization FAIR is obviously on the cutting edge of reporting on.
And I’m sure you probably have seen the recent Nation article about why the New York Times and the Washington Post are producing “native advertising”—and that phrase is so crazy to me, because of the double entendre with the word “native”—because that is really advertorials for big oil that the New York Times and the Washington Post are producing. Obviously, you can’t get those big news organizations to cover stuff when they are clearly in bed with the oil majors.
JJ: Right. I think there’s also a matter of perspective; I can hear people saying: “Ecuador is a small country, they should get to stand toe-to-toe with other oil-producing countries. They ought to get the power of their resources.”
And so you have to angle it differently, and say: “Well, when we say ‘Ecuador,’ who are we talking about? How are those resources and the riches from them, if you will, distributed?” It all kind of depends which way you slice it, I think, if you’re trying to tell the story.
RL: Yeah, and if you’re talking about Ecuador’s resources, we should not forget that Ecuador is one of five Andean nations, including Venezuela, Colombia, Peru and Bolivia, that together represent nearly a fourth of the planet’s total biodiversity. In fact, the Galápagos Islands, which is on Ecuadorian territory, has the densest biodiversity on Earth.
So that’s a resource that Ecuador has that most nations around the planet do not have. And something that I would tell President Lenín Moreno, who has been really pushing aggressively for oil production in his country—mind you, he did sign the Paris Climate Agreement in 2017, but then the following year, he was really pushing private/public partnerships to develop oil and mining—but biodiversity, the biodiversity in Ecuador, is a tourist draw. So that is something that if they can develop a sustainable, eco-friendly tourism platform that expands on their tourism, I think they could lean on that.
JJ: It’s just a matter of choices. If you’re writing to readers in Wisconsin, if you’re writing to readers in New York, if you’re writing to readers anywhere, there’s no need to present this fight between the Waorani and oil companies in Ecuador as if it’s a local or a very specific or particular story; it really is about everybody.
RL: That is a central point, Janine; I’m glad you brought that up, because it really is more than a local issue, it’s more than a regional issue. It really is a global issue. If you believe your life is touched by climate change and the loss of biodiversity on the planet, then this is an issue that should be central to you. It’s frustrating and sad that the major news organizations will not cover something that is so important, that should be on the front page.
JJ: Right. Well, let me just say, finally, you make clear in your piece that the fight is not over; you’ve just announced that the government has already said they’re going forward with the appeal, and have a date for it.
But we also know from other situations that sometimes just holding up deals can be meaningful; investors can get squirrelly, and it can change the dynamic of things. So I don’t want us to undersell the meaningfulness, no matter what happens, of the stay, anyway, that the Waorani people won in this provincial court in Ecuador.
RL: Absolutely. One hundred percent agreed.
JJ: We’ve been speaking with artist-journalist Reynard Loki. He’s editor and chief correspondent of Earth | Food | Life; that’s a project of the Independent Media Institute. Reynard Loki, thank you so much for joining us this week on CounterSpin.
RL: Thank you, Janine.
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