Quito, Oct 8 (AFP/APP):Nemonte Nenquimo is desperate for her five-year-old daughter to inherit pristine ancestral lands in Ecuador’s Amazonian jungle region. It’s this tenacity that earned her a spot on Time magazine’s list of 100 most influential people in the world in 2020. She lives in the 180,000 hectares (444,780 acres) of virgin jungle belonging to her indigenous Waorani tribe, which she has been fighting to protect from exploitation by oil prospectors. In 2019 she led a legal challenge by the Waorani to prevent oil companies from entering their territory in the eastern Pastaza province. Her inclusion on Time’s list wasn’t so much about her own travails but about those of the “men and women, children that have been at the forefront of this process” to save the jungle, Nenquimo told AFP. The 35-year-old speaks Wao-terero, a Waorani indigenous language, but struggles to express herself in Spanish. Such is her determination that she traveled more than 250 kilometers (155 miles) to the capital Quito to protest in front of the Environment and Energy ministries in an attempt to protect her people’s land not just from invasion by the oil companies but also conversion into plantations for African palms or pastureland … Continue reading Ecuadoran indigenous activist recognized by Time magazine