Ecuador awards 5,733 hectares to the Shuar Chikichikentsa Center

The Ministry of Environment and Energy awarded 5,733.35 hectares to the Shuar Chikichikentsa Center, within the “Cordillera de Kutukú y Shaimi” Protective Forest and Vegetation, in the province of Morona Santiago. The decision is contained in Ministerial Agreement MAE-MAE-2026-0078-AM, signed on August 20, 2026, and published in Official Registry No. 365 on September 9, 2026.

The agreement was signed by Mgs. Heriberto Javier Medina Abarca, acting Minister of Environment and Energy, who held the office between August 26 and 29, 2026, by virtue of Agreement MAE-MAE-2026-0077-AM. The awarded area is located in the parishes of Cuchaentza and Sevilla Don Bosco, in the cantons of Morona and Sevilla Don Bosco, and is part of a protective forest declared by Ministerial Agreement No. 402, published in Official Registry No. 476 on July 10, 1990, with a surface area of 311,500 hectares.

A free and collective award

The delivery is made free of charge, collectively, and as a specific body of land (cuerpo cierto), in application of the Organic Environmental Code and its regulations, which recognize the free award of land to communes, communities, peoples, and nationalities that prove ancestral possession. The awarded territory may not be subdivided, encumbered, or alienated.

The process was based on the Comprehensive Management Plan of the Shuar Chikichikentsa Center, approved by Resolution MAE-DZ6-2025-0057-RM on December 22, 2025, and on the technical report from the Forestry Directorate which verified compliance with the requirements of Ministerial Agreement 265. The request was submitted by the syndic Najamdey Mejenda Gonzalo.

Boundaries agreed upon between communities

The awarded area borders several Shuar centers and the State Forest Heritage, following a mutual agreement act on boundaries notarized in November 2025 before the Second Notary Office of the Morona canton. The neighbors are:

• Nuevo Israel Center
• Shuar Pumpuis Center
• Shuar Kampan Center
• Shuar Tayu Center
• Shuar Kunki Center
• Shuar Sunka Center
• Shuar Juank Center
• State Forest Heritage

The agreement details the UTM WGS84 coordinates and the bearings and distances of the 44 vertices that delimit the property.

Conservation and monitoring commitments

The awardee community is subject to the social and environmental function of the property and must conserve and manage the land according to the zoning and the approved management plan. Its members commit to preventing the entry of squatters into the adjacent areas of the protective forest and to maintaining the demarcation of the boundaries.

The National Environmental Authority will carry out the follow-up and monitoring of the management plan, and the community must facilitate access for authorized public servants. The agreement shall be notarized and registered in the Property Registry, at the expense of the administered party, and will enter into force upon its publication in the Official Registry.

The adjudication consolidates the recognition of the ancestral territory of a Shuar community in the Ecuadorian Amazon, in line with the collective rights guaranteed by the Constitution, and reinforces the joint management of a protective forest of high ecological value for the province of Morona Santiago.

Source: Official Registry of Ecuador, No. 365, September 9, 2026, Agreements section, p. 3 (official reference: Ministerial Agreement MAE-MAE-2026-0078-AM).