On February 6, a team from INVENEO, made up of Bob Marsh and Joel Pliskin, arrived in Ecuador to travel with the Equitable Origin team to the province of Zamora Chinchipe in the Ecuadorian Amazon. The objective of this survey trip was to learn about the current state of connectivity in three Shuar communities selected by the Provincial Federation of the Shuar Nationality of Zamora Chinchipe (FEPNASH-ZCH) and evaluate the possibility of implementing a pilot connectivity project in the area.
INVENEO is a non-profit organization that has been working for more than 15 years in many rural communities in Africa, Haiti and South Asia, where they use point-to-point wireless connections to reach remote communities that are currently beyond the reach of direct connections, such as fiber. This solution uses off-the-shelf equipment and long-range Wi-Fi signals to create a connection between the town and a nearby cell tower. The cost is much lower than satellite internet and it provides better service, including the ability to use real-time applications such as WhatsApp.
As evidenced during the COVID-19 pandemic, Internet access became a first-line necessity to obtain information on the development of the virus and protection measures. Likewise, access to the Internet was essential for Indigenous Peoples to communicate with family and educate themselves through the different national virtual education systems deployed during the pandemic. In addition, as a result of the special report «Situation of connectivity to the Internet and other means of communication of the Indigenous Peoples» prepared by Equitable Origin, it was possible to show that only 11.6 % of the Indigenous Peoples in Ecuador have access to the Internet. This demonstrates that there is a great gap in terms of access to communication and information, which is both a constitutional and human right.
The Internet in Alto Nangaritza
As part of the survey trip, the team visited the communities of Nankais, Yawi and Shaime. The latter are located in Alto Nangaritza, on the border with Peru. These are areas of difficult access, however, surprisingly all the communities had at least one satellite Internet access point. Although this allows communities to access the Internet, it is a mode of connection that does not meet the needs of the Shuar people, mainly because it is a connection with a latency that makes real-time communication difficult and reduces its speed. In other words, in the absence of a better service and due to the need and importance of the Internet connection, the Shuar people pay significant expenses for deficient services.
This primarily affects schools and their teachers. Since they do not have a stable Internet connection, they have to use their own resources to be able to attend virtual training and present the reports requested by the Ministry of Education. In interviews carried out by the Equitable Origin team, it was pointed out that the teachers have to travel up to three hours to be able to access the service. Likewise, this problem of Internet speed also limits access to virtual classes since it is a service that not all families can afford or if they can rent the service for a limited time, they do not have the equipment that allows them to use the connection properly.
One hypothesis for inequality in access could be explained by the presence of formal, informal and illegal mining. Mining -mainly gold- has become one of the main sources of income for these communities. Families that extract gold have more resources to pay for an individual satellite connection. Although the communities are aware of the environmental consequences and the long-term effects on their health due to this activity, mining is one of the few sustainable economic incomes. However, several interviewees, including Washington Tiwi, president of FEPNASH-ZCH, pointed to the Internet as an opportunity to compete with mining through the transformation and marketing of their traditional products such as vanilla. A project called Awa Shuar seeks to revalue the ancestral knowledge of this Amazonian nationality and it could profoundly benefit from a stable Internet connection.
Lastly, another important finding during the survey trip was learning from first-hand sources about the problems that women have faced during the pandemic related to domestic violence. As Nancy Chinguñi, leader of the FEPNASH-ZCH, commented, the lack of a stable, real time connection makes it impossible to implement community protocols for managing these problems and prevents the reporting of these events to the corresponding authorities.
In this sense, the findings of this survey trip allowed the INVENEO and Equitable Origin teams to design a proposal for community connection. This will be co-built with the community according to their needs. However, having an internet connection does not ensure the use of its potential. That is why one of the most important components of the proposal that INVENEO has carried out in different parts of the world is training and capacity development. For this, the proposal will have the support of the University of the Armed Forces (ESPE) and other institutions that contribute to generating accessible content through a community connection that promotes the social and economic development of these communities. For this, the Indigenous CEFO is a fundamental tool that seeks to be the main referent of these communities to inform themselves and learn about their rights, continue with their academic training, defend their health, territory and be able to fully exercise their rights.
NEXT STEPS
The information collected during the field visit served to present the initiative to the National Telecommunications Corporation (CNT), who welcomed the proposal with pleasure. In the following months, the work of the INVENEO and Equitable Origin teams will focus on developing, together with the communities, a sustainable Internet connection management model and establishing the best technical solutions to establish internet connections in community centers, schools and the computing center that is part of the proposal. We are confident that the success of this pilot project will enable Indigenous communities in the Amazonian region of Ecuador to improve health outcomes, education, economic well-being, and resilience to the effects of climate change and extractive industries in their territory.
