Nemonte Nenquimo didn’t ask to be a celebrity, not to become friends with Oscar-winner Leonardo DiCaprio, nor to be named by Time magazine as one of the most influential people in the world.
What the indigenous rights activist wanted was for her four-year-old daughter to live in peace, surrounded by the richness of the Amazon rainforest, in her ancestral lands deep in the middle of Ecuador.
“I grew up surrounded by the songs of the wise women of my community who said the green forest that we see today is there because our ancestors protected it,” said Nenquimo, a member of the Waorani indigenous community, who says she is of “warrior blood."
Nenquimo, winner of the 2020 United Nations Environment Programme’s Champions of the Earth award for Inspiration and Action, has continued that legacy of environmental stewardship. But her weapon of choice has been a modern one: the lawsuit.
In February 2019, the Waorani filed suit against the Ecuadorian government, claiming officials failed to consult with them before offering huge swaths of the Amazon rainforest to oil companies. An estimated one million indigenous people, representing more than 400 different communities, reside in the forest, but their livelihoods, land rights and self-determination have been challenged by central governments for generations.
A decision in April of that year in the Pastaza Provincial Court was historic, protecting 500,000 acres of Waorani territory in the rainforest from exploitation.
In June 2020, a provincial court ordered that improvements be made to the monitoring of illegal mining and logging, along with drug trafficking, on the grounds that those industries were vectors of COVID-19.
“As indigenous people we must unite in a single objective: that we demand that they respect us,” said Nenquimo. “The Amazon is our home and it is not for sale.”
UNEP Executive Director Inger Andersen said Nenquimo’s lawsuit win was a seminal moment for indigenous communities in the Amazon basin.
“At least a quarter of the world’s land area is owned, managed, used or occupied by indigenous peoples and local communities,” she said. “Their contribution is essential to halt degradation of these ecosystems. Inclusion of indigenous communities in policy-making and supporting environmental defenders like Nemonte Nenquimo are at the heart of UNEP’s efforts to protect the environment.”
Working with Indigenous communities
In addition to safeguarding the Amazon, Nenquimo is also pressing for other rights for indigenous communities. Her organization, the Coordinating Council of the Waorani Nationality of Ecuador-Pastaza, works with indigenous non-profit Ceibo Alliance (Alianza Ceibo), which Nenquimo co-founded in 2014. The alliance brings together four different indigenous nations – the A'i Kofan, the Siekopai, the Siona and the Waorani to confront threats to their rainforest territories and cultural survival. Ceibo Alliance also builds sustainable indigenous-led alternatives for the protection of their lands and livelihoods by improving access to education, involving young people in leadership, promoting solar energy, and creating economic opportunities for women.
Celebrity connections
Indigenous self-determination and environmental stewardship are also focus areas of Ceibo Alliance’s sister organization, Amazon Frontlines, which Nenquimo helped to establish and which received early support from the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation. In partnership with indigenous and environmental organizations, the Amazon Frontlines works to build indigenous capacity and autonomy to protect the Amazon’s ecological systems and address climate issues.
It’s through this initiative that Nemonte got to know and eventual friend, the Oscar-winning actor, who nominated her for Time magazine’s list of the world’s 100 Most Influential People of 2020.
“It motivates me that the world is recognizing our collective struggle, and the struggle of indigenous peoples in many countries,” she said. “Thanks to this international recognition, we want to keep fighting.”
Nenquimo sees a growing desire among countries to address deforestation in the Amazon. That push, she says, can’t come too soon. This year, the region endured the worst cycle of forest fires in a generation, with more than 76,000 blazes burning across the Amazon basin over the dry months of June, July and August.
“If we allow the Amazon to be destroyed little by little, of course, that affects us as indigenous peoples, but it will also affect everyone because of climate change,” said Nenquimo. “The struggle we do is for all humanity because we all live connected to the land.”
The United Nations Environment Programme’s Champions of the Earth and the Young Champions of the Earth honour individuals, groups and organizations whose actions have a transformative impact on the environment.
The annual Champions of the Earth award is the UN’s highest environmental honour. It recognizes outstanding leaders from government, civil society and the private sector. Nemonte Nenquimo is one of six laureates announced in December 2020, on the cusp of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 2021-2030.
By showcasing news of the significant work being done on the environmental frontlines, the Champions of the Earth awards aim to inspire and motivate more people to act for nature. The awards are part of UNEP’s #ForNature campaign to rally momentum for the UN Biodiversity Conference (COP 15) in Kunming in May 2021, and catalyze climate action all the way to the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow in November 2021.
