Road project promising access to Indigenous Waorani is ushering in deforestation

A new road connecting eight Indigenous Waorani communities to urban centers in Ecuador’s Pastaza province aims to improve access to the interior of the Amazon and reduce transportation costs. But while it promises savings in time and costs, the environment and local communities may end up paying a high price, says Gilberto Nenquimo, president of the Waorani Nation, or NAWE.

The 42-kilometer (26-mile) road begins at the Nushiño River before winding west across thick Amazonian jungle to reach the eight Waorani communities in the interior, including the community of Toñampade. First approved in 2018, there are 28.3 km (17.6 mi) left of the road to complete.

However, the project has been put on hold since July 2022, after the Waorani Organization of Pastaza (OWAP) found evidence of deforestation along the route and issued a complaint to the environment ministry. A recent report by the Monitoring of the Andean Amazon Project (MAAP) has revealed the extent of damage, spanning 5.8 hectares (14.3 acres) across two separate areas of primary forest.

At one of these sites, a 50-meter-high (164-foot) mud pile that was formed during the construction of the road collapsed due to heavy rainfall. “The mudslide was huge,” Nenquimo said by phone. “It came down and killed all the plants and trees that existed there at the time.”

According to Nenquimo, the government has failed to comply with the necessary environmental regulations, including not consulting all the communities and not producing a reasonable environmental impact study to assess the effects of the project. In response to evidence presented by the Waorani, in July 2023 environmental authorities demanded the Pastaza provincial government conduct a new social and environmental evaluation of the project.

“From my perspective, it is an important and complex issue because, on the one hand, it is a project supported by the Waorani — that is, it is not a rogue illegal invasion like in many other scenarios in the Amazon — but, on the other hand, it is a project that could lead to immense and irreversible negative impacts, in terms of deforestation specifically, so it requires strategic planning and monitoring,” Matt Finer, the MAAP director and senior research specialist at the NGO Amazon Conservation, told Mongabay.

The costs of development 

For the Indigenous peoples of the Waorani territory, the road would facilitate easier access to urban centers, better connection with markets, and a reduced cost in food transportation. The project, managed by the Pastaza government and controlled by NAWE, will run through primary forest that’s also home to a rich array of wildlife such as white-fronted capuchin monkeys (Cebus albifrons), collared peccaries (Pecari tajacu) and jaguars (Panthera onca).

Although the project was created to benefit the communities, it has been met with mixed reactions, according to Nenquimo. Most people say it will make their lives easier, but warn of the environmental and social consequences it may bring, such as colonization into the forest, and the outmigration of young people to urban centers, leading to a loss of identity and culture.

Similar projects in the Amazon have led to the expansion of oil exploitation and deforestation. The Auca road project, for instance, was built in the 1950s, also through Waorani territory, to allow oil company workers to transport heavy machinery deep into the jungle. The area around it has since become one of the most deforested in Ecuador’s Orellana province.

The Waorani of Pastaza have already lost huge swaths of their land to illegal mining and logging, according to Javier Vargas, the monitoring and governance coordinator at the EcoCiencia Foundation, a conservation nonprofit. If not managed properly, he said, the new road could worsen these issues.

“The problem is not the road as such, but the way the road was built,” Vargas said.

Neither the Pastaza provincial government nor the environment ministry responded to Mongabay’s requests for comment.

Community protection

The deforestation was first identified in 2022 by the Kenguiwe, a Waorani technical team responsible for monitoring and reporting socioenvironmental threats in the territory.

The first case of deforestation they identified was an area of 0.54 hectares (1.3 acres) and was a consequence of the road construction, according to the MAAP report. The second case, where the mudslide occurred, was 5.27 hectares (13 acres).

“Because of poor planning, the road begins in one direction and, when it encounters difficulties, it goes back and starts again in another direction,” Vargas said. “That is already generating a greater impact on the forest than anticipated and no one controlled that impact. The road was built with very low environmental and social standards and the licensing process was not transparent.”

Most monitors are community members who work with NAWE’s governing council. “The environment ministry does not have a car or trained technical personnel to reach the Waorani territory and they do not have the resources to carry out monitoring activities,” Nenquimo told Mongabay. “Although it is their duty to inspect, verify and follow up, they don’t have money and that’s why they can’t do anything.”

The Kenguiwe in 2022 to deal with this absence of authorities. The group monitors not only the road project but the entire territory, including large rivers, using GPS, drones and other technology. With this information, they create reports to send to the environment ministry.

“This group collected information about the new road and told the environment ministry that [the road builders] were not complying with environmental regulations,” Nenquimo said. “That is why the participation of the guard groups is quite important.”

According to Nenquimo, construction is scheduled to start again in the first week of March.

Banner image: Construction of a new road in Waorani territory. Image by the Kenguiwe / NAWE.