PIACI diagnosis - Ecuador
Preparation of the original document:
TATIANA CALDERÓN AND ESTEBAN ORTIZ PRADO/GABRIEL CEVALLOS SERRA (Health)
Ecuador National Facilitator – ACTO/IDB Program
2013
INDIGENOUS PEOPLES IN ISOLATION OR INITIAL CONTACT IN ECUADOR
In September 2008, Ecuador through a referendum reformed and approved its Constitution, integrating in its article 57 referring to collective rights an exclusive innumerable text for Isolated Peoples: “The territories of peoples in voluntary isolation are irreducible ancestral possession and intangible, and in them all kinds of extractive activity will be prohibited. The State will adopt measures to guarantee their lives, enforce their self-determination and will to remain in isolation, and safeguard the observance of their rights. The violation of these rights will constitute a crime of ethnocide, which will be typified by law.”
The Tagaeri Taromenane Intangible Zone is constituted in a territory of special protection, recognized by the 2008 Constitution and located in overlapping spaces where other delimited territories are found, with different land uses and management, such as: the Waorani territory, the Park Yasuní National Reserve and the Yasuní Biosphere Reserve, the latter two with management plans oriented mainly to the conservation of natural resources.
Within the Intangible Zone, not only the Isolated Peoples live, but also communities of the Waorani Nationality of Ecuador, which within their territory can develop activities for the use of natural resources for self-sustenance and not for commercial purposes.
Since the 1960s, the territory where both the Waorani groups and the PIAs have inhabited and moved has endured some threats, including those caused by missionaries, oil tankers, illegal loggers, and tour operators.
The protection of the Isolated Indigenous Peoples in Ecuador needs permanent measures to guarantee their physical integrity and respect their self-determination in isolation, but these actions are not only the responsibility of the central State but of all Ecuadorians in their different forms of social organization. .
MAPA INTERATIVO
Observe no mapa interativo do Módulo Povos Indígenas, onde se localizam os territórios indígenas na região amazônica e observe as regiões fronteiriças estudadas pelos consultores da OTCA:
VULNERABILITIES AND THREATS
The entry of oil companies since the 1960s has been a constant threat to the way of life of the Waorani peoples and the PIAs, due to the fact that their presence in Ecuador had little regulation and control by the authorities. of State. The contamination of soil, air and water has meant the constant displacement of these peoples in search of territories free of contamination. The oil practices of the past also included the granting of gifts as a conditioning system for the use of the territory, a practice learned by the members of the Waorani Nationality and currently used before any activity that takes place in their territory, even when this activity is for their own use. benefit.
In 2008, controls were established for the confiscation and prevention of illegal extraction of fine wood from the heart of Yasuní (ZITT), minimizing the entry of strangers and establishing a communication system through community radios that would allow the authorities to deal with any case. illegal extraction of resources or other types of extractive activities. The radios have also been used so that the park rangers of the PNY or the Waorani technicians of the ZITT and members of the Waorani nationality could report any presence of isolated people and apply precautionary measures.
Tourism is a recognized activity8 for its operation in the buffer zone and in the same intangible zone under regulation by the authorities, however it is important to recognize that this activity has been practiced by the Waorani since the 70s without any type of regulation until the date. Tourists who enter the ZITT do not have any kind of
information on the risks of entering an area inhabited by PIACIs, they are not required to be vaccinated to minimize the possibility of disease transmission, much less have they been given action measures in case of possible contact with these peoples, much more so when the Tourist activity is not ordered or controlled and sites for visits have not been established, but it is up to the local operator to choose the sites to travel to and to visit.
SYSTEMS OF HEALTH
In Ecuador, historically, primary health care for remote indigenous communities has been deficient and often non-existent. Especially in the Amazon region and due to the presence of oil companies, the State ceded all the basic responsibilities of the population, including education and health.
Despite the fact that in various Ecuadorian constitutions, health care has always been a right, enforcing this mandate has been a difficult task for all the governments in power.
We are going to start with the mapping and identification of the different organizations or medical centers that provide health services located in the three provinces of influence of the Waorani, Quichuas and settlers peoples, as well as the two provinces of influence of the Tagaeri Taromenane, Orellana and Pastaza. .
For this, the georeferenced location of each of the health posts, sub-centers, centers or hospitals that are in the area of influence of these towns will be used.
It is worth mentioning that all care measures and efforts deployed have managed to meet the needs of remote indigenous populations in terms of prevention and health promotion. The different teams and the different brigades have achieved significant coverage and number of medical, dental and immunization care.
There are difficulties regarding the mobilization of sick patients to regional or tertiary hospitals, and the government must work on a more effective plan in relation to the government response to individual emergencies and thus design an evacuation and emergency care plan. in the case of requiring it for the reason of a first contact.
- The methodological foundations on which the experience is based are:
Institutional and intersectoral coordination. - Organizational strengthening.
Strengthening of the State health services. - Training of human resources at the local level.
- Training and awareness of health personnel.
- Interculturality in health, the same that is understood as:
- Respect and knowledge for the health culture of indigenous peoples.
- The incorporation of the dimension of interculturality in public health programs, as well as the incorporation of actors from the indigenous medical system to the actions of the health network.
- The adaptation of intervention strategies according to local conditions and culture of the population, Research and cultural systematization.
