In Pictures: Indigenous women guard against illegal mining in Ecuador
Elsa Cerda (with spear) leads Yuturi Warmi, a group of Indigenous women who guard against illegal mining in the community of Serena in the Ecuadorian Amazon.
Adri Salido
Serena, Ecuador
The Indigenous peoples who live around the Napo and Jatunyacu rivers in the Ecuadorian Amazon have served as stewards of one of the planet’s most diverse ecosystems for thousands of years. So it was with dismay that they watched both legal and illegal gold mines spring up, polluting waterways and destroying critical habitat.
Taking the protection of their land into their own hands, a group of Indigenous women in Serena formed Yuturi Warmi to guard against illegal mining operations. In the Kichwa language, Yuturi Warmi refers to a type of ant (Paraponera clavata) that will attack when an enemy enters its territory.
The group, which formed in 2020, joined with other Ecuadorian and international organizations to urge the government to enforce laws against illegal extraction and to restore habitat.
Why We Wrote This
Indigenous peoples have long been stewards of their land. In the Ecuadorian Amazon, a group of women has mobilized to safeguard waterways and critical habitat.
But officials have not acted, according to Yuturi Warmi. Since then, the group has worked to ensure that no illegal mining takes place in its community. It patrols the riverbank, conducts canoe inspections, and maintains constant surveillance.
So far, it has kept intruders out of Serena.
The situation is far different upstream, in Yutzupino, where illegal extraction has destroyed the basin of the Jatunyacu River, a tributary of the Amazon River.