‘We saw it coming’: The Indigenous leader fighting climate change

Indigenous land defender Nemonte Nenquimo discusses how climate change has altered the Amazon, the plant medicines used to help fight COVID-19, and the ancestral knowledge passed down by her elders.

Puyo, Ecuador – “People from the outside [of Waorani territory] see empty land but to us [Waorani people] the jungle is our pharmacy, our grocery shop, our home supplies shop. People just see gold and wood when they see our land, but this is our home, our diversity. We do not want to destroy our life,” says Nemonte Nenquimo over a Zoom call from her office in the Ecuadorian city of Puyo. The 36-year-old Waorani leader and land defender is referring to the 802,220 hectares (about 2 million acres) of Waorani territory in the Amazon Pastaza province, of which Puyo is the capital, in Ecuador. One of the most biodiverse rainforests on earth, it is home to 600 types of birds, 200 different mammal species, 300 types of fish and thousands of plants with medicinal properties, according to Amazon Frontlines, an NGO that works alongside Indigenous communities in the Amazon.