Armed with spears, their faces painted, members of the A'i Cofan community's indigenous guard prepare to patrol the banks of the Aguarico River in Ecuador's Amazon, ready to confiscate equipment and call in the police if they find miners on their ancestral land.
"We go down and document all the people who have entered," guard coordinator Nixon Andy, 24, said. "When we come across strangers on our territory we speak peacefully, but if there isn't respect there are authorities to whom we can report."
The mining industry and authorities say the ruling affects only future projects and should not halt those already cleared for development, like Chinese consortium Ecuagoldmining's Rio Blanco gold-silver project or Canadian company Dundee Precious Metals' Loma Larga gold project. "An extractive project rejected by the community could go ahead in exceptional circumstances, but subject to very clear rules," said Jorge Acero, a lawyer for the Amazon Frontlines advocacy group. "The risk is that the government considers that to be the rule when it's the exception."
"Ecuador has an opportunity: its neighbors are not having a good time and mineral prices are rising," Ycaza said. "All these opportunities could disappear thanks to this."
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