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18 Wednesday, April 13, 2016 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon Sisters resident joins indigenous women to defend the Amazon By jodi Schneider mcNamee Correspondent When Sisters resident Susan Prince began hearing about oil spills in the pristine rainforests of the Ecuadorian Amazon, she decided to investigate for herself. And on March 8, 2016, International Women’s Day, Prince took action by join- ing 300 indigenous women from across the Ecuadorian Amazon in a historic march in defense of the Amazon against oil drilling. “I had first gone on a month-long trip to Ecuador over four years ago with a friend,” she recalled. “Global exchange offered a trip called the ‘toxic tour.’ It’s a program where they take people all around the world to places with issues. We were taken on a tour through the part of Ecuador that was destroyed by the oil companies. In the past Texaco had drilled in Ecuador. They created huge leach fields, which are ponds where all the oil goes that leaches out of the pipes. And the ponds aren’t lined. The oil was poisoning the rivers and the indigenous people were suffering. After 30 years of this they unified and brought a lawsuit against the oil com- pany and won. However the suit is still unresolved. “I learned a lot on my first trip, especially from the non- profits that have been sup- porting the indigenous people and getting the word out to stop drilling.” Prince went a second time three years ago and explored deeper into the jungle where the forests are still intact and where the indigenous peo- ple continue to fight off oil companies. E c u a d o r ’s s o u t h e r n Ecuadoran Amazon has a long history of indigenous resis- tance, drilling project failures, and oil companies that have abandoned drilling plans. In January 2016, Ecuador’s government sold oil explora- tion rights in a remote corner of the Amazon rainforest to an assortment of Chinese state- owned oil companies, despite resistance from indigenous groups in the South American country. “My last trip in March was with Amazon Watch, and we were going into two territo- ries in the southern part of the Amazon,” Prince said. “There are large blocks of designated land that the government has opened for drilling. These areas are untouched pristine rain forests.” Amazon Watch works to protect the rainforest by advancing the rights of indig- enous peoples. They have helped the people become more unified and stronger. “I landed in Quito, Ecuador and was met at the airport by Amazon Watch. I stayed at a hotel there, and then 25 of us all got on a bus to Puyo, Ecuador where the march took place,” Prince said. It was the first time that indigenous Amazonian woman from over seven nationalities joined forces and marched together in defense of their rights, rainforests and future generations. “We started in Puyo with hundreds of indigenous women and their supporters,” Prince said. “We all joined together to protest against the government, who wants to allow the oil drilling. We marched around Puyo for about two hours. It was very hot, but we were grateful for the good media coverage and the women felt empowered.” After the protest Prince and four others took a canoe down the fast-moving Bobonaza River to Sarayaku, a village that played a huge part in the battle. They would hear firsthand from leaders and community members about the Ecuadorian gov- ernment’s aggressive push to open up their lands to new oil drilling. The people of Sarayaku had won a lawsuit against the Ecuadorian oil company which had come in and done exploratory drilling in their territory without their consent. “We were there as their guests. We ate with them and we stayed all together in a platform building with a roof. It was me along with two women and two men, and we each had our own bed with mosquito netting. The indige- nous people are very friendly and appreciative. We learned of their ways and took a tour of their medicinal garden,” Prince said. Then Prince boarded a three-passenger Cessna that landed on an airstrip filled with weeds and rocks in the photo provided Susan Prince participated in demonstrations against oil drilling in South America. Amazon Basin, surrounded them to defend the forest. If by mountains. we do not, the balance of life “We were in Zapara, which will be altered and we will not is one of the most primitive survive.” areas, no flushing toilets, no “We then journeyed back privacy and the beds were to Quito, which is a big city at made out of straw,” Prince 10,000 ft., and stayed for two said. “We stayed there for days before leaving,” Prince three days and then flew to said. Shell, Ecuador, got into a van “I want people to know and went from sea level up to what’s going on in the 11,000 feet in one day in the Ecuadorian Amazon and I Andes. We stayed at a beauti- want them to know what is in ful hotsprings up there, which danger of being lost forever was in the cloud forest.” and that we can make a differ- What Prince and others ence,” Prince told The Nugget. heard from the indigenous “We can support Amazon people repeatedly during their Watch, and the other orga- trip to Southern Ecuador was nizations that are helping to their adamant opposition to keep these people strong. On oil and other natural-resource a larger scale we all need to extraction, and how they keep talking about the impact would continue defending of fossil fuels in the environ- their lives, land and cultures. ment. There are people behind Manari, a Sapara leader, the scenes creating electric explained it to Prince and cars and bio fuels, there are others like this: “Our forest alternatives. We need to save is full of spirits. These spirits our environment.” maintain the balance of life in For more information go to the forest. 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