Ecuador communities resist Canada-backed gold mine in sacred highlands

Latoya Abulu - Mongabay - 17/04
This is the first of a three-part series on underreported issues involving Canadian mining companies and Indigenous peoples or local communities. Read part one here. Shrouded in the lush vegetation of the páramo, the Andean tundra landscape, the quiet wetlands and moorlands of Quimsacocha in southern Ecuador are at the center of a dispute. Hortensia […]
  • Indigenous and local communities in southern Ecuador are struggling to stop a Canadian gold-and-copper mining project that communities say will largely impact the Quimsacocha páramo ecosystem while violating their rights to self-determination.
  • According to its technical report, the Loma Large mining project approved by the Ecuadorian government will provide jobs for locals and ensure the protection of water sources and the environment.
  • Despite legal rulings to suspend mining operations, and referendums in which communities voted overwhelmingly against the mining project, critics say Dundee Precious Metals Inc. continues to initiate consultation with a limited number of people in favor of mining.
  • Although community leaders still seek to uphold their rights defending their land and waters, they say a newly signed free-trade agreement between Canada and Ecuador is yet another blow to their hopes.
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This is the first of a three-part series on underreported issues involving Canadian mining companies and Indigenous peoples or local communities. Read part one here.

Shrouded in the lush vegetation of the páramo, the Andean tundra landscape, the quiet wetlands and moorlands of Quimsacocha in southern Ecuador are at the center of a dispute. Hortensia Zhagüi, a water defender and leader of the Tarqui community in the country’s Cuenca canton, said members of her community have campaigned against a mining project on these lands for the last three decades.

“All the páramos, everything that is our life, are about to be destroyed,” Zhagüi, who is also a member of the Kimsacocha Women’s School of Agroecology, told Mongabay by phone. “That’s why we’re fighting to defend it. Our principles are formed this way ...
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