Napo
Oil exploitation taught Kichwa resistance; toxic legacy spawned indigenous political organization and ecotourism alternatives (Sani Isla, Capirona). By 2026, Yasuni precedent tests whether community-based conservation can replace extraction economy.
Oil drilling inscribed Napo with seismic grids, 300+ productive wells, and 600 open waste pits—but also taught indigenous communities how to resist. The Kichwa of Napo watched toxic waste, noise pollution, and skin disease outbreaks in the 1970s-80s; that knowledge seeded political organization that now makes Tena (the provincial capital) home to two major indigenous confederations, Fenakin and Ashin.
The counter-model emerged from necessity. Sani Isla's Kichwa commune repeatedly rejected oil company overtures, instead conserving 10,000 hectares through the Socio Bosque program and independently protecting another 16,577 hectares. Ecotourism—the Napo Wildlife Center, community-run lodges, backpacker hostels in Tena—replaced extraction revenue. The Capirona community runs Ecuador's first fully indigenous-operated ecotourism program.
But oil never fully left. The Pungarayacu heavy oil field (250 square miles) remains contested; 16% of Ecuador's land is granted to oil companies, and nearly half of indigenous territories (207 of 437) overlap oil blocks. Napo sits at the frontier where extraction meets resistance.
2026 trajectory: Yasuni referendum victory (August 2023) established precedent that communities can block drilling. Whether that principle extends beyond the specific block—and whether tourism revenue can scale to replace oil dependency—determines Napo's future. The province becomes test case for post-extraction Amazon development.