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Recent News
Indigenous Shuar Communities
Legally Recognized
July 2008
Nine communities received
protection on the part of the State |
The Shuar people have inhabited a large part
of Southern Ecuador for the past 600 years. Ancestrally these
people have been strongly tied to the forests, rivers, and waterfalls,
and possess an extraordinary knowledge of the biodiversity and
the management of the territory. In the past 60 years, the Shuar
have suffered the pressure of an economic system that has encouraged
the colonization of their territories, with the consequential
problems of deforestation and degradation of their culture. After
the recognition of a large part of the Shuar territories as a
Biosphere Reserve in 2007, NCI signed cooperation agreements with
the Shuar Federation of Zamora-Chinchipe (FEPNASH-ZCh) to claim
territorial rights and maintain their culture. This joint work
has begun to show its initial results.
Thanks to the support of NCI, the Ecuadorian
Ministry of the Environment on May 19, 2008 declared three Protected
Forest
and Vegetation Areas with a total surface of 37,500 acres in Yacuambi,
Zamora Chinchipe province.
The Council for Development of the Nationalities
and Peoples of Ecuador (Codenpe), has just officially recognized
9 additional Shuar indigenous communities in the watershed of
the River Nangaritza. This measure legally accredits the existence
of these communities and guarantees them a series of rights, benefits,
and protection on the part of the State. The territories of these
communities total nearly 40,000 acres of space for the survival
of the Shuar and ecosystems rich in biological diversity.
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