In Ecuador, the community of Sarayaku is the only tribe of the upper Amazon who succeed to prevent the intrusion of oil, mining and lobber companies. Like in the movie Avatar, they have been harassed and persecuted. Companies are using all sorts of strategies to enter their territory and exploit their natural resources.

The story happening in the Amazon is similar in many points to the Na’vi of Avatar expect for one aspect: The Kichwas of Sarayaku are not violent. Discover their Great Wall of Flowers: the indigenous symbol of peace, earth protection and human rights respect.

The Kichwas of Sarayaku are the community of the Zenith. They are defenders of the Amazon basin of Ecuador. This community is a model of resistance; at first to colonization, then to deforestation and now to petroleum. Since 1930, the Sarayaku people have been victim of 4 violent intrusions in their territory. Companies entered their homeland with the collaboration of the police, the army and no previous consultation to make seismic exploration with explosives.

In the heart of a biodiversity hotspot: the Tropical Andes forest

Located in the Amazonian forest of Ecuador, inside the province of Pastaza, the community of 1200 Kichwas lives along the Bobonaza River. The jungle is part of the Tropical Andes forest that is considered a biodiversity hotspot. It is a biogeographic area with major resources of biodiversity that are under threat from humans. In this jungle of the upper Amazon, approximately 100 species of trees per acre have been documented, compared to an average of only 40 in Central America and 20 in the temperate forests of North America and Europe.

An independent and equal society

The Kichwas of Sarayaku are autonomous and self sufficient. Their activities are divided by gender. Agriculture is primarily a female activity and hunting and fishing are reserved to men. Ceramics are made by women and men are to build houses and canoes. In fact, the feminine dominance is in the Chakra, an area where they cultivate plants, fruits and vegetables. In these Chakras, women’s purpose is to prevent monoculture. The masculine domain is in the forest, where they hunt. Gender socialization happens during the chicha -a beverage made of fermented yuca (manioc) and saliva- produced in the Chakra and provided against meet, the product of the forest.

The Great Wall of Flowers

The project was inspired by the Yachaks of Sarayaku (the shamans). The idea is to generate a great wall alive of tree flowers to cover the expanse of their territory’s borders (186 miles) as a symbol of peace, earth protection and of respect for the Indigenous people living there. The wall is a series 21520 square feet circles that are planted every 4 miles on forest fallows, so that people can see from above and with satellite pictures. The project started in 2006 and the circles are projected to be settled and flourished by 2020. Other neighbors’ communities are called to collectively join in the movement.

The human voice of the Amazon

The Indigenous people are constantly pushed in their lands. They know from the experience of other tribes at the North of Ecuador, that clean and state of the art technologies for oil exploitation in the Amazon always end up contaminating water and soil. If oil companies exploit their soil and resources, there will be no more virgin nature and natural ecosystem services for the next generations. About 5000 cases of indigenous sues in Latin America are being processed in the International Court for Indigenous Human rights because of mining and oil exploitation illegal activities . Sarayaku is one of them. Sarayaku is the first step that Indigenous and the Pachamama need to survive in dignity and for the future generations.