2 minutes read
By Domenica Enriquez
Miwaguno, Ecuador, Dec 23 (efe-epa).- Residents of some indigenous communities in the Ecuadorian Amazon are choosing to rely on the natural remedies used by their ancestors as they battle the Covid-19 pandemic.
More than 3,200 indigenous people have contracted the coronavirus and 49 have perished, according to figures from Ecuador’s Health Ministry, but elders in this Waorani settlement on the edge of Yasuni National Park where nobody has died of Covid-19 have more confidence in traditional healing than modern medicine.
“We took natural, ancestral medicines, such as boiled lemon water and wild garlic,” Miwaguno’s leader, Juan Enomenga, told Efe.
Ecuador indigenous group files climate change suit against Chinese oil firm 3 minutes read
Orellana province, Ecuador, Dec 10 (efe-epa).- Elders of an indigenous group in Ecuador’s northeastern Amazon region on Thursday filed an unprecedented lawsuit against Chinese-owned oil company PetroOriental, saying its operations had contributed to climate change and affected that community’s way of life.
It marks the first time a so-called protective action lawsuit has been filed that draws a direct link between the activities of oil companies in Ecuador and climate change.
The plaintiffs say other companies also are responsible for climate change but decided to take legal action exclusively against PetroOriental, which is developing Block 14 in the Yasuni National Park and Biosphere Reserve, an area the Huaorani indigenous people claim as their ancestral territory.