The Sarayaku people and their struggle with the oil extractive industry

This paper explores a political process of enforceability of rights led by the Kichwa indigenous people of Sarayaku over the Ecuadorian state. Ecuador is a country that self-defines as plurinational and intercultural and one that has claimed to give an important place to nature by incorporating the indigenous notion of buen vivir in its Constitution. Nevertheless, the findings of this study show that this legal recognition is not reflected in reality. Ecuador is the scene of a number of conflicts that arise from opposing views: one dominant view is rooted in the pursuit of development through oil extraction, and “the other” view focuses on the defense of indigenous territories and nature. By exploring the Sarayaku struggle for the defence of their territory, this study analyses the importance of spiritual and cosmological dimensions in indigenous resistance processes. The paper will reaffirm the sacred connection between territory, non-human and human beings in an effort to explain different knowledge systems that underlie the indigenous struggle. The Sarayaku people represents an international emblematic political and legal precedent—one in which, on the basis of recognizing their worldview and knowledge sys-tems, the highest tribunal of the Americas, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, ruled in their favour.