Across the Amazon, indigenous peoples are stepping up their efforts to defend their rainforest territories and rights from the extractive industry, agribusiness, and other industrial threats. To do this, they need to be able to communicate with the outside world from their remote territories, and have basic energy access to power their resistance, as well as implement sustainable solutions for management and protection of their territories. And what better way to stop the expansion of the fossil fuel frontier and protect Earth Defenders than with clean, renewable energy! 

This spring, we carried out the second install of our Power to the Protectors program in three Kichwa communities in the central Ecuadorian Amazon, all threatened by new oil expansion. The equipment and training provided will be essential tools to support the communities’ ability to monitor their territory, denounce rights violations, and share their vision and story with the world.