NUEVA LOJA, Ecuador (AP) — Standing beside a stream darkened by crude in Ecuador’s northern Amazon, an Indigenous woman looked on in disbelief as an oily film drifted across the surface and damaged pipes cut through the surrounding forest. In the distance, gas flares blazed above the canopy.

Julia Catalina Chumbi, a 76-year-old leader of the Shuar people from the southern Amazon province of Pastaza, had journeyed hundreds of miles to witness the environmental toll left by decades of oil and gas extraction in the northeastern province of Sucumbios.

“Everything is polluted, even the air we breathe,” she said softly.

Julia Catalina Chumbi, a Shuar leader from Ecuador’s Amazon province of Pastaza, traveled to see firsthand the environmental damage tied to oil extraction in Sucumbios, Ecuador, Friday, March 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)

Julia Catalina Chumbi, a Shuar leader from Ecuador’s Amazon province of Pastaza, traveled to see firsthand the environmental damage tied to oil extraction in Sucumbios, Ecuador, Friday, March 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)

A group of Indigenous women from across Ecuador’s Amazon walk past a support structure for an oil pipeline as they move through the region on what activists describe as a “toxitour” of oil fields in Sucumbios, Ecuador, Friday, March 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)

A group of Indigenous women from across Ecuador’s Amazon walk past a support structure for an oil pipeline as they move through the region on what activists describe as a “toxitour” of oil fields in Sucumbios, Ecuador, Friday, March 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)

Moments earlier, Chumbi had learned something that stunned her. In villages near the oil operations in Sucumbios, families can no longer drink from local rivers and instead must purchase water because of contamination and fears about their health.

“Seeing this makes me want to cry,” she said, noting that rivers in her own territory remain safe to drink from.

Chumbi was among roughly 30 Indigenous women from across the Amazon who traveled to Sucumbios on the so-called toxitour, visiting oil wells, pipelines and gas flaring sites to observe the environmental and health consequences of extraction. Organizers said the goal was to connect women from areas now facing proposed oil projects with communities that have lived alongside the industry for decades. Since many oil concessions overlap Indigenous lands, these communities are often the first to experience polluted rivers, degraded forests and contaminated food sources.

The women — representing seven Indigenous nations — gathered for several days in Nueva Loja for workshops to exchange stories and discuss the growing risk of oil expansion in their homelands.

Nueva Loja is better known as Lago Agrio, a name given in the 1960s by workers from the U.S. oil company Texaco, inspired by a Texas oil town. The city later became the hub of Ecuador’s early Amazon oil boom.

A warning from the oil fields

Salomé Aranda walks with a gas flare burning behind her in Sucumbios, Ecuador, Friday, March 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)

Salomé Aranda walks with a gas flare burning behind her in Sucumbios, Ecuador, Friday, March 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)

The women traveled by bus, passing a maze of pipelines stretching along the roadside. Their destination was the Libertador oil field, operated by the state-run company Petroecuador. There, they painted banners to carry during their walk, including one that read, “Amazon free from oil and mining.” Reporters accompanied them as they quietly entered sections of the oil-producing zone to observe the impacts. Contaminated streams flowed near well sites and pipelines, vegetation showed signs of exposure, and wildlife was scarce.

Standing near a roaring gas flare, 43-year-old Salomé Aranda from the Kichwa community of Morete Cocha in Pastaza wore traditional face paint across her cheeks and forehead.

Aranda said the visit allowed her to witness damage she is rarely permitted to see around oil facilities in her own territory.

“Where we live, we are not allowed to enter those areas,” she said.

Seeing the pollution up close reinforced the fears she already held about oil activity near her community.

“Animals are disappearing, and our crops no longer grow as they used to,” she said.

After the tour, the women returned to Nueva Loja, where they spent hours in group discussions reflecting on what they had observed and sharing accounts from their own regions. By the end of the workshops, they had begun outlining strategies to strengthen resistance to potential new oil concessions.

A looming expansion

Waorani leader Dayuma Nango lifts a palm frond after stepping into a stream stained dark by oil waste during a tour in Sucumbios, Ecuador, Friday, March 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)

Waorani leader Dayuma Nango lifts a palm frond after stepping into a stream stained dark by oil waste during a tour in Sucumbios, Ecuador, Friday, March 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)

“Women in the north have endured more than 50 years of oil exploitation,” said Natalia Yepes, a legal adviser for Amazon Watch in Ecuador, during one of the workshops. “The idea is to share those lessons with women in the center and south who are now confronting similar threats.”

Last year, Ecuador’s government introduced a sweeping hydrocarbon development plan outlining roughly $47 billion in investments and new licensing rounds for exploration blocks in the Amazon and other areas. Many of the proposed blocks lie in Pastaza and Napo, provinces where Indigenous communities live.

Authorities say the initiative aims to modernize the sector, draw foreign investment and increase production.

A group of Indigenous women from across Ecuador’s Amazon examine a map showing proposed oil drilling sites during a meeting in Nueva Loja, Ecuador, Saturday, March 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)

A group of Indigenous women from across Ecuador’s Amazon examine a map showing proposed oil drilling sites during a meeting in Nueva Loja, Ecuador, Saturday, March 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)

A group of Indigenous women from across Ecuador’s Amazon speak after completing what they call a toxitour of oil fields in Nueva Loja, Ecuador, Friday, March 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)

A group of Indigenous women from across Ecuador’s Amazon speak after completing what they call a toxitour of oil fields in Nueva Loja, Ecuador, Friday, March 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)

Environmental advocates and Indigenous leaders, however, warn that the projects could open vast stretches of rainforest to drilling, pipelines and flaring. They argue that many affected communities have not provided the free, prior and informed consent required under Ecuador’s constitution and international agreements.

The Energy and Mines Ministry did not respond to requests for comment.

The future of fossil fuel development in the Amazon is also expected to be debated at an international conference in Santa Marta, Colombia, in April. Governments, Indigenous representatives and civil society groups are set to discuss pathways for transitioning away from oil, gas and coal following last year’s U.N. climate summit in Brazil.

Indigenous resistance

For several women on the tour, the visit strengthened struggles already underway in their communities.

Dayuma Nango, 39, vice president of the Association of Waorani Women of Ecuador, said the contamination she witnessed deepened her resolve to prevent oil companies from entering Waorani land.

“The forest is our mother,” said Nango, who has faced death threats because of her activism. “That is why we defend it.”

The Waorani have previously challenged major oil projects in the Amazon. In 2019, Indigenous leaders secured a landmark court ruling that halted drilling in Block 22 in Pastaza after judges determined the government had failed to properly consult communities. In 2023, Ecuadorian voters approved a referendum to stop oil drilling in Block 43 within Yasuní National Park, an area overlapping Waorani ancestral territory.

After seeing the pollution in Sucumbios, Nango said she fears her people could face similar consequences if new developments proceed.

“We do not want to repeat the story our brothers and sisters are living here,” she said.

Toa Alvarado, a Kichwa leader, listens as activists describe environmental damage caused by oil extraction while visiting contaminated sites in Sucumbios, Ecuador, Friday, March 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)

Toa Alvarado, a Kichwa leader, listens as activists describe environmental damage caused by oil extraction while visiting contaminated sites in Sucumbios, Ecuador, Friday, March 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)

Toa Alvarado, 30, a Kichwa leader from Pastaza, said the trip also strengthened her commitment to safeguard her homeland. She recalled how her late father, a longtime community leader, once stood in the road with a spear to block gold miners from entering their territory.

“He told me our generation might be the last with a chance to protect our land from contamination,” she said.

The following day, many of the women who took part in the toxitour gathered in the Amazon city of Puyo to mark International Women’s Day with demonstrations.

“Today we speak out about the violations Indigenous women endure — especially violations against the rights of nature,” said Ruth Peñafiel, 59, from a Kichwa community in northern Ecuador.

“We want to live in a healthy environment, in harmony with the forest,” she said.

For Chumbi, the journey to Sucumbios strengthened the message she intends to bring back to her Shuar community deep in the rainforest.

“We will fight,” she said, referring to the prospect of oil drilling in her territory. “Even if it costs us our lives.”

Indigenous women march to mark International Women’s Day in Puyo, Ecuador, Sunday, March 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)

Indigenous women march to mark International Women’s Day in Puyo, Ecuador, Sunday, March 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)

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