Project Report
| May 10, 2023
Update
By Mike Cepek | President Board of Directors, Cofan Survival Fund
We’ve been working nonstop: helping Cofan people battle illegal gold miners, protecting Cofan land rights in court, enrolling Cofan families in healthcare and eldercare programs, managing community-conservation projects, and convincing the Ecuadorian state to put park-guard positions and carbon-sequestration revenues in the hands of Cofan people.
Some very sad news has also diverted our attention. At least two Cofan elders have died since we last wrote. In addition, a Cofan leader in the community of Dureno—Eduardo Mendua—was killed in February. His death was part of the Cofan’s long struggle to survive the horrors of oil extraction. We knew Eduardo well. We’re monitoring the situation closely and ready to help in any way we can.
Jan 10, 2023
Training for park guards
By Mike Cepek | President Board of Directors
Members of our Ecuadorian team worked with 17 members of the Cofan communities of Avié and Chandia Na'e, both located inside the Cofan-Bermeo Ecological Reserve (RECB), to help them learn how to become the highly effective caretakers their territory needs. For four days, these Cofan ecological stewards traveled far from their rainforest homes to stay in our Ecuadorian headquarters, which are located in the national capital of Quito. There, they underwent intense training sessions on how to negotiate the Ecuadorian legal system, how to use GPS units to map threats to their homeland, how to treat medical emergencies in back-country conditions, and how to carry out a patrolling plan to protect their territory and confront the illegal intruders who are trying to destroy it.
For two months, this new Cofan park guard team will reestablish the RECB boundary trails, confront miners and other forest intruders, generate reports on their work, coordinate with Ecuador's Ministry of Environment, and chart a path forward for the long-term care of their territory.
Sep 12, 2022
Update
By Mike Cepek | Board Director
The CSF’s work in Ecuador continues. As always, the local team is organizing meetings, actions, and “bureaucratic magic” to ensure that Cofan territory’s legalized, protected status remains in force. They’re also working to keep Cofan communities enrolled in Ecuador’s Socio Bosque program, which channels government funds to communities that choose not to deforest their land. There’s no specific “project” for this CSF work; our Ecuadorian team simply does it, whether we have the funds to pay their salaries or not. They also do it using their personal vehicles, which are barely running at this point. So many of their responsibilites demand traversing the muddy, rocky, perilous backroads of Cofan territory as well as the increasingly treacherous “highway” between the Andean capital of Quito and the lowland province of Sucumbíos, where all Cofan communities are located. Sooner rather than later, we need to acquire at least two all-terrain vehicles for our Ecuadorian team. If our CSF staff can’t get where they need to go, it’s impossible for them to do what they need to.