Tribes ask for delimitation of their territory

Cawetipe Yeti, President of the Huaorani nationality of Ecuador

Legalization and demarcation of the ancestral  huaorani territory in the provinces of Orellana, Pastaza, and Napo and the transfer of the management of the Plan of precautionary measures to the nationalities, are some of the requests that have been asked as measures to prevent more killings in the area.

The huaorani territory is located in the Yasuni National Park (YNP), the so-called intangible zone, which consists of an area of 700 hectares defined as untouchable, to protect the uncontacted tribes  established within the Park.

Due to the risk of disappearance of the tagaeris and taromenanes, the Inter-American Commission on human rights (IACHR), granted on May 10 of 2006 precautionary measures (of protection) and was ordered their compliance to the State.

In response, the President of Ecuador Rafael Correa, in April of 2007 adopted a national protection programme and drew up the Plan of precautionary measures to protect the uncontacted. It was initially managed by the Ministry of Enviroment and from March of 2011 by the Ministry of Justice.

In this project it has been invested until 2011, $2.5 million in checkpoints to prevent the logging  and carry out studies to gather evidence of the existence of tribes.

Cawetipe Yeti, President of the huaorani nationality of Ecuador  (NAWE), says that with the demarcation and legalization of their ancestral territory not only can they can control the entrance of hunters, but also  “calm zones in which are the tagaeris or the taromenanes”.