Huaorani Land Rights in Ecuador: Oil, Contact, and Conservation

This article traces the state-sponsored economic colonialism practiced by Texaco, which exploited official designations of Huaorani homelands as "tierras baldias,'' or uncultivated waste lands, to force the removal of Huaorani families from their homes to Christian settlements. It documents the ways in which Texaco controlled policy-making to minimize its responsibility for environmental degradation that resulted from its industrial infrastructure of wells, pipelines and other oil-drilling equipment. It stresses the difficulties indigenous groups have in enforcing international law designed to protect indigenous rights. The article shows that indigenous peoples can lose control of their homelands not only from environmental problems associated with resource extraction but also from perceived environmental solutions such as international conservation.