The Territory of the Shuar Arutam People is a Territory of Life!

By Mencha Barrera and Nicoletta Marinelli from Fundación ALDEA, ICCA Consortium Member.

The Shuar Arutam People (PSHA) have officially registered their territory in ICCA Registry of ICCAs - territories of life, managed by the World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC). On November 22nd, 2019, after a community consultation process, the Government Council formalized the resolution. "We made this decision with the strength of the Arutam, our supernatural protector principle, who gives a particular power to us, the Shuar People," said Josefina Tunki, President of the PSHA.

The Shuar Arutam people, custodians of unique ecosystems in the region

The territory of the Shuar Arutam people covers 232,533 hectares of tropical rainforest in the Cordillera del Cóndor of the Morona Santiago province, Ecuador. It connects the tropical Andes biodiversity hotspot with a large wild area of Amazonian tropical forest. In this extensive territory, only 20,636 hectares have been intervened, and 205,072 hectares remain very well conserved, covered by tropical rainforest with a high presence of bodies of good quality water and wet shrub vegetation.

The conservation of the forest and biodiversity in the territory of the Shuar Arutam People represents an extraordinary resource for the country and for humanity in the context of the current global climate emergency and the forces of national public policies, which for decades have promoted the conversion of land use and associated with the exploitation of subsoil resources.

56% of the PSHA territory is threatened by large-scale extractive concessions that also imperil the Cordillera del Cóndor. There are four large areas with native vegetation found only in this particular geography and topography. These areas are home to unique biological niches such as the vegetation of Tepui plateaus, a one-of-a-kind ecosystem in the region; and they provide an important refuge for threatened animals such as the spider monkey, night monkey, pacarana, and river otter.

Three territories of life are now registered in Ecuador

The way of life of the PSHA people and their capacity to manage and care for their territory rely on the guarantee of water, which is an ecological and political imperative, now and into the immediate future of good quality water (without contamination) scarcity in the country and in the Amazonian Basin. At present, there is abundant water in the region, and its preservation is key, not only for life, but from a cultural perspective. Galo Chup, leader of the PSHA, noted that, "The waterfalls are sacred to the Shuar culture." The forest and the water are indispensable common goods for their existence as an indigenous people, and they constitute the material and spiritual basis of the Shuar Arutam people.

The Shuar Arutam people registered in the world registry of territories of life because they feel, decide, and care their territory, exercising their collective rights and their self-determination. In Ecuador, there are now three territories of life registered in the ICCA global registry, through a collective process initiated in 2017 and accompanied by the ALDEA Foundation as part of the strategic project «Territories and areas conserved by indigenous peoples and local communities» or «territories of life» (ICCAs), funded by the Small Grants Program - SGP / GEF / UNDP. The Shuar people will be joining the registered territories of life of the Playa de Oro Commune, in Esmeraldas; and the Agua Blanca Ancestral Community, in Manabí.

Faced with the challenges that these communities and peoples face in the defense of their territories, registration is a valuable tool that recognizes the multiple values of territories of life and highlights the contribution of indigenous peoples and local communities to the conservation of biodiversity in the world.