News of Note 9/26/25: No Indigenous Consultation in Ecuador’s Oil Expansion, Global Tenure Rights Funding Down, Half of Tribal Funding at Risk in US
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Indigenous groups criticize Ecuador’s $47 billion oil expansion plan in Amazon (Associated Press)
”Seven Indigenous groups in Ecuador’s Amazon have denounced a government plan to offer dozens of blocks of land for oil exploration, saying it threatens their ancestral lands and violates constitutional protections. The criticism targets a plan from the Ministry of Energy and Mines in August to auction the rights for 49 oil and gas projects worth more than $47 billion. [...] Indigenous groups say 18 of the proposed oil blocks overlap their territories — an area roughly the size of Belgium. Leaders from the Andwa, Shuar, Achuar, Kichwa, Sapara, Shiwiar and Waorani peoples say their communities were not consulted and accuse the government of ignoring court rulings that struck down earlier consultations as unconstitutional.”
Aid funding wanes for indigenous people’s tenure rights, report finds (Impact Investor)
”A report analysing international aid funding trends for strengthening tenure rights for indigenous peoples (IPs), local communities (LCs), and Afro-descendant peoples (ADPs), has found that funding to these communities peaked in 2021 [...] with funding down by 23% from 2021 to 2024. “
Report: Nearly half of all federal funding for tribes at risk under Trump’s ‘big beautiful’ bill (Associated Press)
”Roughly $530 million of the $1.19 billion allocated to Northwest tribal nations in fiscal year 2024 — used to fulfill the federal government’s trust and treaty obligations to Native American and Alaska Native tribes — is at risk of being cut. The congressionally allocated funds serve myriad functions for tribes in the Northwest, including providing clean drinking water, affordable housing, schools, transit and land management. Funding is decided by Congress on a yearly basis and can be disbursed over a period of time that exceeds the calendar year it is allocated.”
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Indigenous peoples ‘caught between a rock and a hard place’ in the energy transition (Reuters)
Indigenous women in Peru use technology to protect Amazon forests (Mongabay)
Indigenous Peoples Human Rights Defenders Stand in Solidarity with Mining-affected Communities in Benguet, Philippines, Call for Genuine FPIC (Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact)
Cambodia: Microfinance Lending Harming Indigenous Groups (Human Rights Watch)
Kenya’s Growing Carbon Market Is a Setback for Indigenous Land Rights (Earth Island Journal)
Amazon indigenous leader to banks: ‘Come and live with us for a day’ (The Banker)
All Eyes on Bolivia: Indigenous Resistance in the Country's Mining Wasteland (Cultural Survival)
Between the Sacrifice Zone and the Right to Exist: The Aranã Caboclo Indigenous Peoples’ Struggles in Brazil (Cultural Survival)
State-based treaties aren’t symbolic - they are the foundation of Indigenous economic self-determination (Pursuit / University of Melbourne)
Maine tribe [Penobscot Nation] regains 1,700 acres in forest transfer from conservation group (Tribal Business News)
Pueblo leaders urge federal government to protect ‘living history’ at Chaco Canyon (Source New Mexico)
Peehee Mu’huh: Sacred Land at Risk (Watershed Sentinel)
Protecting Tribal Waters in Alaska (Native American Rights Fund)