Sarayaku
Encyclopedia
Bobonaza River
The Bobonaza River is a river of Ecuador. It drains into the Pastaza River, and ultimately into the Amazon River at Iquitos in Peru.Its course runs mostly through Amazonian tropical rainforest, much of which is still sparsely populated...
in the province of Pastaza
Pastaza Province
Pastaza is a province in the Oriente of Ecuador located in the eastern jungle. The capital is Puyo, founded on May 12, 1899 and which boasts 25,800 inhabitants...
in the southern part of the Amazonic region of Ecuador
Ecuador
Ecuador , officially the Republic of Ecuador is a representative democratic republic in South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and by the Pacific Ocean to the west. It is one of only two countries in South America, along with Chile, that do not have a border...
, el Oriente. The territory incorporates a number of villages and has a total population figure between 1,000 and 2,000 Kichwa
Kichwa
Kichwa is a Quechuan language, and includes all Quechua varieties spoken in Ecuador and Colombia by approximately 2,500,000 people...
speaking people, who call themselves the Runa people of Sarayaku, or the Sarayaku people. They are organized in “Organización de Pueblos Indígenas de Pastaza”, OPIP. The leader of the Sarayaku people is Jose Gualinga (2011)
Sarayaku is situated in tropical rainforest
Tropical rainforest
A tropical rainforest is an ecosystem type that occurs roughly within the latitudes 28 degrees north or south of the equator . This ecosystem experiences high average temperatures and a significant amount of rainfall...
; approximately 25 minutes by plane or one day by canoe
Canoe
A canoe or Canadian canoe is a small narrow boat, typically human-powered, though it may also be powered by sails or small electric or gas motors. Canoes are usually pointed at both bow and stern and are normally open on top, but can be decked over A canoe (North American English) or Canadian...
in the southeast direction from the nearest city, Puyo
Puyo
Puyo refers to;* Puyo, Pastaza, the capital of Pastaza, a province in Ecuador* Buyeo , or Puyo, an ancient Korean kingdom* Buyeo County, in South Korea* Puyo , a Japanese manga artist* Puyo Pop/Puyo Puyo, a Japanese video game...
. Puyo is only 50 kilometres east of the more known city of Baños
Baños
Baños de Agua Santa , commonly referred to as Baños, is a city in eastern Tungurahua Province, in central Ecuador. Baños is the second most populous city in Tungurahua, after Ambato, the capital, and is a major tourist center...
. The Bobonaza River drains into to the Amazon River
Amazon River
The Amazon of South America is the second longest river in the world and by far the largest by waterflow with an average discharge greater than the next seven largest rivers combined...
at Iquitos
Iquitos
Iquitos is the largest city in the Peruvian rainforest, with a population of 370,962. It is the capital of Loreto Region and Maynas Province.Located on the Amazon River, it is only above sea level, although it is more than from the mouth of the Amazon at Belém on the Atlantic Ocean...
in Peru
Peru
Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
, via the Pastaza River
Pastaza River
The Pastaza is a large tributary to the Amazon River.It has its headwaters in the province of Tungurahua, where the Tambo River joins the Latacunga River, near the foot of the Volcano Tungurahua, flowing south-east towards the Amazon Basin...
and the Marañón River
Marañón River
The Marañón River rises about 160 km to the northeast of Lima, Peru, flows through a deeply-eroded Andean valley in a northwesterly direction, along the eastern base of the Cordillera of the Andes, as far as 5 degrees 36' southern latitude; then it makes a great bend to the northeast, and...
.
The Sarayaku people have during the last few years made ecotourism
Ecotourism
Ecotourism is a form of tourism visiting fragile, pristine, and usually protected areas, intended as a low impact and often small scale alternative to standard commercial tourism...
a way of living. They try to preserve their distinctive characters as means in the tourism industry. After a founding process that took several years, the first semester of university studies in Sarayaku began in the fall of 2003. The program came through after close cooperation with the universities of Cuenca
Cuenca, Ecuador
Cuenca is the capital of the Azuay Province. It is located in the highlands of Ecuador at about 2500 m above sea level...
and Lleida
Lleida
Lleida is a city in the west of Catalonia, Spain. It is the capital city of the province of Lleida, as well as the largest city in the province and it had 137,387 inhabitants , including the contiguous municipalities of Raimat and Sucs. The metro area has about 250,000 inhabitants...
(Catalonia
Catalonia
Catalonia is an autonomous community in northeastern Spain, with the official status of a "nationality" of Spain. Catalonia comprises four provinces: Barcelona, Girona, Lleida, and Tarragona. Its capital and largest city is Barcelona. Catalonia covers an area of 32,114 km² and has an...
). The main purpose of the university program is to raise the quality of multicultural and multilingual education among the indigenous communities in the province of Pastaza. Through this program, they will in addition to developing their own educational resources, brush up on old knowledge concerning philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
, Indian cosmo vision, cultural identity and cultural traditions.
A self-governed territory called “Tayjasaruta” or “Autonomous Territory of the Original Kichwa Nation of Sarayaku” was proclaimed when the Argentine oil company CGC moved into the area using seismic surveys
Seismology
Seismology is the scientific study of earthquakes and the propagation of elastic waves through the Earth or through other planet-like bodies. The field also includes studies of earthquake effects, such as tsunamis as well as diverse seismic sources such as volcanic, tectonic, oceanic,...
in search of petroleum
Petroleum
Petroleum or crude oil is a naturally occurring, flammable liquid consisting of a complex mixture of hydrocarbons of various molecular weights and other liquid organic compounds, that are found in geologic formations beneath the Earth's surface. Petroleum is recovered mostly through oil drilling...
. The petroleum industry is of great value to the government in Quito
Quito
San Francisco de Quito, most often called Quito , is the capital city of Ecuador in northwestern South America. It is located in north-central Ecuador in the Guayllabamba river basin, on the eastern slopes of Pichincha, an active stratovolcano in the Andes mountains...
, because the state economy
Economy
An economy consists of the economic system of a country or other area; the labor, capital and land resources; and the manufacturing, trade, distribution, and consumption of goods and services of that area...
is highly dependent on income from crude oil export to pay national debt. To stop the resistance against the industry from the Sarayaku people, the government sent federal soldiers to Sarayaku and closed the Bobonaza River as traffic artery.
The conflict has received great attention in international press; for instance http://oriononline.org/pages/om/05-1om/Handler.html. This is a classical example concerning the struggle for rights to land between national authorities and native population. The Sarayaku people accuses the oil companies of ethnocide since the industry, from the people’s perspective, will ruin their subsistence level economical, cultural, nutritive, ecological, and spiritual, and in addition it will undermine the social balance in the community. They also claim that the oil industry is the biggest threat to the recently founded university program in Sarayaku.