- Biden slams 'outrageous' ICC bid to arrest Israeli leaders
- Five things to know about incoming Anfield boss Arne Slot
- Changing climate influences London's Chelsea Flower Show
- UK PM sorry for institutional cover-up in infected blood scandal
- G7 push to use Russian assets for Ukraine 'vital and urgent': Yellen
- Trump trial closing arguments set for next week
- US Supreme Court rejects ex-Guantanamo detainee's appeal
- Japan's Studio Ghibli receives honorary Palme d'Or in Cannes
- Liverpool confirm Slot will replace Klopp as manager
- Pogacar 'good enough' to win Giro d'Italia and Tour de France
- Cargo ship that destroyed Baltimore bridge towed to port
- 'God works slowly': NGO ship rescues 35 Bangladeshis off Malta
- Dominican Republic's President Abinader wins resounding re-election
- England relish 'fear factor' of returning paceman Archer
- Israel, Hamas reject bid before ICC to arrest leaders for war crimes
- Explosive Trump biopic hits Cannes Film Festival
- Demi Moore transforms for Cannes body horror 'The Substance'
- Spain demands Milei public apology for 'corrupt wife' comment
- Gold hits record high as Iran shock triggers haven support
- Ship that destroyed Baltimore bridge being towed to port
- Max wins but Red Bull supremacy challenged: Emilia Romagna GP talking points
- US inflation fight will take 'further time': senior Fed official
- UK report finds cover-up of decades-long infected blood scandal
- Trump trial resumes, closing arguments expected next week
- Ruto on first state visit by Kenyan leader to US in two decades
- African players in Europe: Superb Kudus goal in vain as City take title
- Pope to visit Belgium, Luxembourg in September
- Gold hits high as Iran shock triggers haven support
- Strikes pound Gaza as Israel voices 'duty' to expand Rafah incursion
- Russia tries playwright and director on terror charges
- Iran mourns president Raisi's death in helicopter crash
- Attack on tourists rocks fledgling Afghanistan tourism sector
- Paralympics should put disability back on global agenda, says IPC chief
- South Africa's top court strikes Zuma from ballot
- Crunch time looms for BHP's bid buy Anglo American
- Kane to face old club Spurs for first time in Seoul
- Markets rise as traders cheered by China property plan
- Black farmers in Brazil changing views on coffee production
- Iran's President Raisi declared dead in helicopter crash
- Australia police arrest 554 in domestic violence crackdown
- South Korea, Britain host AI summit with safety top of agenda
- New president Lai vows to defend Taiwan's democracy
- Forever fad: Rubik says his cube 'reminds us why we have hands'
- Trump eyes witness stand as trial draws to a close
- Ryanair annual profit jumps on higher demand, fares
- High-priced Cummins, Starc face off as IPL enters playoffs
- Iran media says President Raisi died in helicopter crash
- Dominican Republic President Abinader re-elected to 2nd term
- New Taiwan president Lai hails 'glorious' democracy
- New Caledonia separatists defy French efforts to unblock roads
CMSC | 0.06% | 24.4885 | $ | |
RIO | -0.14% | 73.51 | $ | |
CMSD | 0.41% | 24.27 | $ | |
SCS | -1.15% | 13.475 | $ | |
NGG | -0.34% | 72.58 | $ | |
RBGPF | 2.01% | 58.81 | $ | |
JRI | 0.17% | 11.6 | $ | |
VOD | 0% | 9.79 | $ | |
BTI | -0.53% | 31.425 | $ | |
BCE | -1.07% | 33.975 | $ | |
RELX | 0.11% | 44.12 | $ | |
RYCEF | 4.03% | 5.52 | $ | |
GSK | -0.33% | 44.832 | $ | |
BCC | 1.11% | 137.575 | $ | |
BP | -0.56% | 37.28 | $ | |
AZN | 0.19% | 77.05 | $ |
Envious shamans and pollution: Diverse threats to Ecuadoran Amazon
When fish numbers diminished in the Ecuadoran Amazon, the Siona Indigenous people blamed envious, rival shamans for blocking the animals' passage through the rivers of Cuyabeno, a biodiverse wetland.
Experts, however, point the finger at pollution, deforestation and climate change wreaking havoc on the second-largest protected area in Ecuador.
Shaman Rogelio Criollo, 74, told AFP the cause of the decline had been revealed to his Siona tribe during a divination ceremony using the sacred hallucinogen ayahuasca, also known as yage.
"A (rival) sage who knew the spirit of the jungle and the spirit of the river ... closed the doors to the fish, the turtles," Criollo told AFP.
But the shaman acknowledges that other factors may also be at play: "Many say it's pollution."
Stretching over some 600,000 hectares, the Cuyabeno lake system and the nearby Lagartococha and Yasuni reserves were in 2017 declared wetlands of international importance under the Ramsar environment treaty.
The area hosts more than 200 species of amphibians and reptiles, 600 types of bird and more than 160 mammal groups.
- 'Alerts for us' -
The risks to the forest oasis are plenty.
"Satellite data shows an extremely serious deforestation process" nearby, reserve director Luis Borbor told a recent conference in Quito on fishing.
The extent of farmland bordering on Cuyabeno rose from 819 hectares in 1985 to over 5,000 hectares in 2022, affecting the soil health and robbing countless species of a home in trees critical to absorbing planet-warming CO2.
Also nearby, illegal mines are polluting water sources upstream from Cuyabeno.
A study by Ecuador's National Biodiversity Institute in February revealed "heavy metals accumulation in fish" in several Amazonian rivers -- including the Aguarico and Cuyabeno that cross the reserve and are a source of food for indigenous peoples.
Experts also suspect the hand of global warming in droughts that are ever more frequent and severe.
Last year, the Laguna Grande -- Cuyabeno's biggest tourist attraction -- dried up twice. It is unusual for it to happen even once a season, said Borbor.
"These are alerts for us to say that there is climate change in this region," he told AFP.
Drought this year in Ecuador saw water levels drop to critical lows, resulting in power outages of up to 13 hours per day as hydroelectric reservoirs ran empty.
On Wednesday, the World Meteorological Organization said Latin America and the Caribbean had their warmest year on record in 2023 as a "double-whammy" of El Nino and climate change caused major weather calamities, including crippling droughts.
- Ancestral help -
As global efforts falter to curb climate change caused by mankind's burning of planet-warming fossil fuels, the Siona deal with their problems the traditional way.
Delio Payaguaje, 72, another Siona shaman, describes a ceremony he took part in to commune with the spirit world, seeking a solution to the fish shortage in Cuyabeno's 14 lagoons.
Dressed in necklaces with animal fangs and feathered headdresses, the shamans prayed to the forefathers, and then went to the river.
There, they saw movements and bubbles in the water, indicative of fish activity, said Payaguaje.
According to Borbor, Indigenous knowledge has been key to conserving Ecuador's nature reserves, which house everything from kingfishers, macaws and herons to monkeys and pink dolphins.
K.Thomson--BTB