KAWSAK SACHA – LIVING JUNGLE, SACRED TERRITORY
OF THE ORIGINAL KICHWA PEOPLE OF SARAYAKU.
Adopted in the Assembly of the Original Kichwa People of Sarayaku,
December 2012.
- ANTECEDENT:
The Original Kichwa People of Sarayaku, heirs to a historical memory of resistance and struggle for the validity of their freedom against the invasion, domination of colonizers, rubber tappers, missionaries, gold and oil prospectors, is and will be a symbol of resistance of the Original peoples and of the world, because we are Sarayakurunas, descendants of the jaguar, the pumas and the trees, inhabitants of the Bobonaza and Marañón river basins, tributaries of the Amazon, places where the Tayak, bearers of ancient wisdom, They navigated these slopes, baptizing the places they traveled, managing to conserve and protect vast territories and ecosystems.
Sarayaku is politically organized in a mixed structure, made up of the traditional authorities of the town and leaders. It was legally recognized in 1979, by the Ecuadorian Government, through ministerial agreement No. 0206. Its legal status was reformed and approved on June 10, 2004 by the Council for the Development of Nationalities and Peoples of Ecuador (CODENPE), through agreement No. 024. Currently, Sarayaku is registered with the National Secretariat for Political Management.
Covered in article 71 of the Constitution of the Republic in which it establishes that Nature or Pachamama, where life is reproduced and carried out, has the right to full respect for its existence, the maintenance and regeneration of its vital cycles, structure, functions and evolutionary processes. Taking into account that any person, community, town or nationality may demand from the public authority the fulfillment of the rights of nature.
In addition, articles 25, 26 and 29 of the United Nations declaration establish that indigenous peoples have the right to maintain and strengthen their own spiritual relationship with the lands, territories, waters, the conservation and protection of the environment and the use of the resources they have traditionally possessed.
Therefore, the Original Kichwa People of Sarayaku DECLARES:
KAWSAK SACHA – LIVING JUNGLE,
SACRED TERRITORY, BIODIVERSITY AND CULTURAL HERITAGE OF THE KICHWA PEOPLES IN ECUADOR.
- CONCEPT:
KAWSAK SACHA, is the life space of the beings of the jungle, from the most infinitesimal to the greatest and supreme being, including the animal, vegetable, mineral and cosmic worlds.
It is a transcendental territorial area destined to revitalize the emotional, psychological, physical and spiritual facets to restore the energy, life and balance of the original peoples.
It is the domain of waterfalls, lagoons, swamps, mountains, rivers and trees, populated places where the supreme protectors of Kawsak Sacha live and develop their life, similar to the human being.
The Kawsak Sacha is also the place of transmission of the knowledge of the yachak, where they intuit in the world of the wisdom of the masters and lords of the living places and of the sublime worldview for methodical learning.
This universe, the natural balance, the harmony of life, cultural perpetuity, the existence of living beings and the continuity of the Kawsak Sacha depend on the permanence and inter-transmission of the powers of the supreme beings with the yachak, as well as the correlation and respect between human beings and the beings of the jungle.
- THE OBJECTIVE:
The objective of this declaration is to preserve the territorial spaces, the material and spiritual relationship that the Original Peoples establish there with the beings that inhabit the Living Forest, declaring these sacred territories, a zone free of all activity of extractive exploitation of non-renewable resources. , leaving the oil underground and implementing a new model of wealth values for the Sumak Kawsay (Life in Harmony or Good Living) through the execution of Sarayaku life plans.
- PURPOSE:
In this declaration, rules of use and management will govern, based on the norms of coexistence for the Sumak Kawsay, such as: Respecting the established territorial zoning, strengthening the ancestral knowledge of the sasha rune Yachai, (Knowledge of the men of the jungle), develop peace and freedom Runakuna Kawsay, (Life of the men of the jungle) and ensure the Sumak Allpa (Fertile land without evil), to achieve the Sumak kawsay (Life in harmony).
- FINAL PROVISIONS:
In view of this declaration, the Original Kichwa People of Sarayaku urges the States, national and international governments to reform international law in terms of conservation in the systems of protected natural areas and to commit to the acceptance and recognition of a new category of protection of the territories of the original Amazonian peoples declared Kawsak Sacha – Living Forest.
In addition, we call on national and international peoples and nationalities to unite to unanimously protect and guarantee the declaration of the Kawsak Sacha – Living Forest.