Sanne Derks

Photographer

www.sannederks.com

Sumak Kawsay: The Rights of Nature - Ecuador

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School: Postgraduate in Photojournalism, Universidad Autónoma, Barcelona, Ph.D. Cultural Anthropology and Gender Studies, Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands Master in the Psychology of Culture and Religion, Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands

Sumak Kawsay: The Rights of Nature - Ecuador

'The petroleum companie...re companies. Piwiri, 24-4-2023

'The petroleum companies are poisoning us.' is a wide-heard expression in the Amazone. The pollution is contaminating the rivers and fish. Most communities are close to rivers, to survive. One way to fight mining and petroleum companies, is by fighting for ancestral rights over their lands, so the companies wanting to extract the resources need prior consent of the communities to be granted permission to extract. As such, even the smallest communities possess some power to fight the multi-millionaire companies. Piwiri, 24-4-2023

Aerial view of Sinangoe, in the...territories. Sinangoe, 5-3-2023

Aerial view of Sinangoe, in the northern province of Sucumbíos, Ecuador. The community won a historic battle against mining companies and their Aï K'ofan territories have become protected. Also, judge ruled that nation-wide indigenous communities should be consulted before mining concessions can be given in their territories. Sinangoe, 5-3-2023

Alexandra Narvaez is an indigen...re Ecuador. Sinangoe, 5-3-2023.

Alexandra Narvaez is an indigenous A'i Kofan leader from the Amazonian community Sinangoe. She battled against mining concessions and with her community Sinangoe she won a large victory against the big mining companies that invaded and polluted the Sinangoe territories in the Ecuadorian Amazone. Since this historical history, petroleum and mining companies first need the concession of indigenous communities before they can start extracting, not only in the A’i Kofan territories, but in entire Ecuador. Sinangoe, 5-3-2023.

Andrea Narvaez is the first wom...gold mining. Sinangoe, 4-3-2023

Andrea Narvaez is the first woman participating in the indigenous guard of Sinangoe. The guard sets out to patrol the territories to monitor if nobody is invading their territories. With the help of drones and camera traps the community was able to gather proofs of illegal mining that helped them win a landmark legal battle against gold mining in the area in 2018. 52 mining concessions were nulifies to protect the headwaters of the Aguarico River, since these concessions were violating the K'ofan's right of consent, freeing up more than 32, 000 hectares of primary rainforest from the devastating environmental and cultural impact of gold mining. Sinangoe, 4-3-2023

The sky in Shushufindi is light...the air. Shushufindi, 11-2-2023

The sky in Shushufindi is lighted by the fires and pollution caused by the gas burners that the petroleum companies use to get rid of the petroleum waste. It shows the amount of pollution and the intoxication in the air. Shushufindi, 11-2-2023

Mother Maité Grefa h... Dotch, Shushufindi, 10-3-2023.

Mother Maité Grefa holds her son Emilio Gonzalez. Since two months he suffers from steoporosis and he cannot walk anymore. The family wants to visit an independent doctor to investigate if his disease is related to the pollution in the area, as the family is expecting. Rio Dotch, Shushufindi, 10-3-2023.

The hands of Donald Moncayo are...xic waste. Lago Agrio, 2-3-2023

The hands of Donald Moncayo are covered in petroleum, while showing the waste that has been dumped in so-called 'swimming pools' by the petroleum company Texaco (now Chevron) in the past decades. The oil company dumped its waste material in rivers and buried it in 'pools' in nature in the provinces of Sucumbios and Orellana. Donald Moncayo wants to raise awareness on this environmental scandal by leading Toxic-Tours and is suing the company in name of the people suffering from cancer and other diseases caused by the toxic waste. Lago Agrio, 2-3-2023

Irena Alvarado is washing gold ...territories. Tzawata, 28-4-2023

Irena Alvarado is washing gold in a hand-made attribute for traditional mining. The Tzawata-community is literally living on top of a gold-mountain. They are in a 15 year long legal battle against mining companies -shifting names every moment- as the company claims ancestral lands in order to prevent the mining companies from re-entering their territories. Tzawata, 28-4-2023

Girls are braiding each others&... being impoverished. 23-4-2023.

Girls are braiding each others' hair in the community of Piwiri, a hamlet consisting of just 13 houses at the river Viane in Ecuador. Especially the women in the community are strongly opposed against the petroleum acitivities in the area. They are facing the treat of re-opening a well within the Moretecocha territory. Also, they are in the area of influence of an active petroleum well, that is based in a neighboring territory, but causing pollution in the river. After the community filed a demand against the petroleum company, the benefits for compensation (education and health projects) have stopped and the community is being impoverished. 23-4-2023.

'Mechero' -gas ...ing food. Shushufindi, 2-3-2023

'Mechero' -gas burner, near Shushufindi in north Ecuador. The gases cause large pollution in the air, that not only is transported by air, but also comes down with the rain on the soil producing food. Shushufindi, 2-3-2023

Salomé Aranda (wavin...iculture to sustain themselves.

Salomé Aranda (waving) waves at her family members from Piwiri, who brought her to the neighboring community of where her current partner lives. The petroleum activities in the area cause pollution in the rivers and in the soil, threatening the lives of the people in these communities, who are dependent on fishing, hunting and small-scaled agriculture to sustain themselves.

Sumak Kawsay: The Rights of Nature in the Ecuadorian Amazone

South American Ecuador, with its unprecedented biodiversity, is to date the only country in the world where nature has been granted rights, which are enshired in Article 71-74 of the Constitution. The rights of Nature are inspired by Sumak Kawsay, a premise taken from pre-Columbian Andean Quechua cosmology. It is translated with "Buen Vivir" (Good Living), and refers to living in harmony with each other and with nature. By assigning rights to nature, it becomes a legal entity that can be protected; the right is not without obligation and can be defended and claimed.

As one of the poorest Latin American countries, mining in Ecuador has intensified enormously in recent years. Also oil extraction is an extractivism that is applied on a large scale, often in protected nature reserves. Paradoxically, the government legitimizes these practices with the same concept Sumak Kawsay and promises to use the revenues for a "Good Life", for example by investing extra in better education or health care.

As a consequence, tensions and conflicts arise that are taken to court. This project aims to investigate how Ecuadorian women from small indigenous communities in the Amazone are at the forefront in the fight against mining and petroleum companies polluting their territories. In particular it are the women who, being mothers wanting to conserve their lands for future generations, who are outspoken and taking the lead in the conservation of the Amazone. Their fight does not only concern the residents and immediate inhabitants, but ultimately all of us, as the Amazone forest is important to all of us on earth.

Co-funded by Dutch Fund for In-Depth Journalism and Stichting Oog op de Natuur [Foundation Eye on Nature]