"Ecuador's Indigenous defenders face growing threats, activists say at UN summit", 01 November 2024

...Indigenous environmental defenders in Ecuador are suffering an increasing number of threats and sometimes deadly attacks amid spiraling violence in the country, activists said during U.N. COP16 nature talks in Colombia this week.

Nearly 200 countries are gathered in the city of Cali in an attempt to agree on a deal to implement the landmark 2022 Kunming-Montreal Biodiversity Framework agreement that aims to end destruction of nature by 2030. Among the goals of that agreement was heightened protection for environmental defenders.

But during the summit, slated to end late on Friday, Indigenous activists from Ecuador said danger for their communities was growing."It's become a tense and terrible problem in Ecuador," Juan Bay, president of the Waorani Indigenous community, told Reuters, adding that threats have increased since a 2023 referendum in Ecuador approved a ban on oil drilling in the Amazon.

...According to the U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity website, Ecuador has not reported on its aims to protect environmental defenders...