Indigenous Peoples and Conservation Organizations

The Runa in Ecuador 43
However, it remains an open question what their
role should be in the evolution of new structures
for sustainable development. Do new economic
models require transformation of the federations’
mission and governing structure, or can new
models bubble up through small community-level
projects? If federations do not play a role, how
will communities obtain the skills needed to
carry out these projects and obtain access to marketing,
funding, and information networks?
Environmental NGOs must analyze more carefully
their strategies to combine conservation and
development. In choosing to support community
development projects, NGOs need to think about
what impact results will have at a wider “landscape”
level. Where real regional impact is possible,
higher levels of commitment and continuity
of support may be justified. Inevitably that
means NGOs should look at the role indigenous
organizations play and can play in the policy
arena. Commitment to a new vision of people’s
parks requires rethinking past patterns of institutional
support and helping to foster institutions
that increase community control and capacity and
make proposed models for indigenous management
of territories viable.
Endnotes
1. The author would like to thank the directorate
of FOIN, the members of the PUMAREN team
(especially Jaime Shiguango), and community
members in Huahua Sumaco and Amazonas for
their help in obtaining updated information for
this case study. Thanks are also offered to James
Levy, David Neill, Matthew Perl, Jorge Uquillas,
and Barbara Wyckoff-Baird for their comments
on early drafts of this chapter.
2. According to CEDI (1991, 64), 138,935 indigenous
people lived in the approximately 6.2 million
square kilometers of the Brazilian Amazon.
3. For simplicity, PUMAREN is used here as the
name for an evolving project whose first phase
began as LETIMAREN (Legalization of Indigenous
Lands and Management of Natural Resources).
4. This chapter often uses Napo Province as
inclusive of Sucumbios and Orellana provinces.
In 1920 the uncharted region east of the Andes
known as the Oriente was divided into four
provinces, including Napo and Pastaza. Only in
1989 was Napo’s northern section sliced off to
form Sucumbios Province, and in 1998 Napo was
further subdivided to form Orellana.
5. Shuar and Achuar peoples, who successfully
avoided being missionized early on, still maintain
their unique identities and live in large numbers
in western Pastaza and southern Ecuador. Only a
few Zaparo speakers have survived, intermixed
with Quichua speakers.
6. Since 1997, indigenous organizations have
coordinated more major protests (including two
in 1999) with a broader base of peasant and labor
union organizations.
7. According to Dinerstein, et al. (1995), the
ecoregions occupied by Runa include two
Tropical Moist Broadleaf Forest habitats and one
Montane Grassland habitat. All are ranked as
globally outstanding, and of highest regional priority
for conservation. The Sumaco region
includes all three: #22, Napo Moist Forest
(369,847 km 2 ) in Ecuador, Colombia, and Peru;
#47, Eastern Cordillera Real Montane forests
(84,442 km 2 ) in Ecuador, Colombia, and Peru;
and #139, Northern Andean Paramo (58,806 km 2 )
in Ecuador and Peru.