Millions in preservation, but who gets the money?
Millions of funds are raised worldwide in the name of protecting the Amazon and its indigenous communities. But who actually controls this money and how much do the actual people deserve whose ancestral lands are allegedly preserved?
In an interview with Sobern Media's Ahmed Caballo, Paz Panjubitri, a representative of the Quichua nation of Pasteza, Ecuador, challenges the international conservation industry, accusing governments and large NGOs of using indigenous peoples to attract funding, while denying them meaningful control over their resources.
Punjabi claims that despite the huge sums raised to protect the forest, indigenous communities continue to face poverty, environmental degradation and the erosion of their territorial sovereignty.