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Rainforest Radio

February 2, 2021

In the fight to save their homeland, three brave Ecuadorian women are taking to the airwaves. Their small radio station has become a bastion in the struggle against exploitation of the rainforest.

https://p.dw.com/p/3olUL
planet e.: Radio-Frauen aus dem Regenwald
Image: Berndt Welz/ZDF

The Amazon Rainforest’s indigenous communities are under threat, with oil companies encroaching ever further into their homelands. In order to give indigenous women a voice, three radio reporters are returning to their roots.

Mariana Canelos, Jiyun Uyunkar and Rupay Sumak now live in the city, but they were born and raised in the rainforest. In addition to Spanish, they also speak their tribal languages, giving them a vital tool to reach listeners in remote Amazon villages. Canelos says that until now, no one has given a voice to women in such places. But the group aims to change that. They travel by canoe on the Amazon and its tributaries, reaching the most remote areas. There they document women’s daily lives, recording stories and songs that would otherwise be lost. 
 

planet e.: Radio-Frauen aus dem Regenwald
Mariana CanelosImage: Berndt Welz/ZDF
planet e.: Radio-Frauen aus dem Regenwald
Image: Berndt Welz/ZDF


In many Amazon villages, women have little say in the community. But in 2003 in Sarayaku, a Kichwa village, women drove out heavily armed soldiers protecting oil workers. Now, the women call the shots. The Kichwa remain on their guard, because of fears Ecuador’s recession could prompt new rainforest oil drilling as a way to raise revenue.

Ecuador Chevron Ölanlage Rio Napo
Image: Imago Images/epd


In northern Ecuador, kilometers of pipelines have been crisscrossing the rainforest for years. Many of them corrode and leak, allowing oil to seep into rivers that are lifelines for local people. Uyunkar says that oil drilling also exposes the local communities to problems of migration, prostitution and crime.


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