Summary of the National Assembly of the Huaorani-Onhae in Ecuador

September 28, 2000

In relation to the exploitation of timber:

The presence of illegal logging in the Huaorani Territory, especially working from the Via Auca, in the areas of the Rio Shiripuno, Cononaco, Bataboro, Tiguino, is destroying the forest that the Huaorani depend upon for their subsistence. Some Huaorani, both individuals and families, have negotiated with loggers for large-scale exploitation of this resource without consulting the Assembly or with other Huaorani communities.

The Assembly resolved:

First: Loggers are prohibited from entering the Huaorani Territory, their actions do not just affect one community, but the entire Huaorani nation.

Second: Individual or family negotiations concerning logging are prohibited since these resources do not belong to just one community, family, or individual, but to the entire Huaorani nation.

Third: All negotiations need to have the approval of the assembly and ONHAE.

In relation to the exploitation of petroleum:

The exploitation of petroleum has brought negative consequences to the Huaorani people.

These consequences include: the destruction of their forests, the contamination of our rivers and streams, the opening of roads, settler land invasions, alcoholism, prostitution, the increase and spread of new diseases like Hepatitis B, and drastic social and cultural change. Oil operations continue to increase in protected areas such as Yasuni National Park with some of the world’s largest and most fragile concentrations of floral and faunal diversity. No prior consulting process exists for the oil companies to work within Huaorani Territory. ONHAE and the Huaorani people do not have the appropriate time necessary to analyze the situation before reaching an agreement.

There is no control and there exists no social and environmental program for the Huaorani to monitor petroleum activities nor is there any available equipment to do so. The oil companies help only the communities that are located near their exploratory and exploitation wells. In the majority of cases, the benefits gained are minimal and the help insignificant. The community relations officers of the companies give gifts like rice, sugar, money, motors, and other infrastructure to convince the communities to agree to the company’s activities. The community relations officers often promise things that later they do not complete and work to divide the communities against one another and their central organization, ONHAE.

In the case of the Huaorani community of Garzacocha, located in Yasuni National Park, the Argentinean oil company Perez Compaq has already started exploration activities. The community has never wanted these activities. Nevertheless, the company has manipulated some of the families with gifts, false promises, and constant pressure from both community relations officials and oil workers.

The company says that it will only negotiate with the community and not with ONHAE since Garzacocha is outside the demarcated Huaorani Territory.

The Assembly resolved:

First: Oil operations are hereby prohibited in Concession 31, located within Yasuni National Park and the Huaorani community of Garzacocha.

Second: All development of petroleum activities in the Huaorani Territory and other areas under the management of Huaorani communities needs to undergo a process of analysis and consultation with ONHAE and the communities. The Huaorani and ONHAE will decide the period of time needed for the consultation process.

Third: All consultation processes, negotiation, and dialogue between an oil company and/or community relations and the Huaorani people – communities, groups, families which take place both within and outside of the Huaorani Territory, will be analyzed by ONHAE and the Assembly.

Fourth: The only agreement signed by the Huaorani nation and ONHAE is with the company YPF-Repsol.

Fifth: The other oil companies which operate in the

Huaorani Territory do not have any agreements with the Huaorani nation and ONHAE. These companies do not have the authorization to work in our territory.

Sixth: We will initiate an information campaign against oil exploitation within the Huoarani Territory that will discuss all the inconveniences and problems that oil extraction has created for us.

Seventh: The Hauorani Nation at the end of the seventh Huaorani Assembly has decided to denounce fully and definitively all petroleum activities in the Huaorani Territory.

We denounce the companies PEREZ COMPAQ, KERR-McGEE, AGIP, .5, and all the others who enter in our territory, with the exception of Concession 16 with which we have signed an agreement.