BACKGROUND
THE CHOCÓ RAINFOREST & PEOPLES
30 years ago, Esmeraldas's coasts and banks of the Carchi, Mira, Santiago- Cayapas, Esmeraldas, and Muisne River basins were covered by the lowland Ecuadorian Choc rainforest. This area forms part of the greatest extension of contiguous tropical Pacific Coast forests of the Americas, designated in the late 1980s as the "Chocó Biogeographic Region". Encompassing 187,400 km2 (116,445 miles), "the Choco", extends through southern Panama (a.k.a., the Darien Gap) and down the coasts of Colombia and Ecuador. It includes the rainiest rainforests in the world as well as the western range of the Andes Mountains' cloud forests and highly diverse montane forests. Hundreds of resident Afro-descendant, Indigenous, and Mestizo communities call the Choco their home.
"Afropacífico" and Tsa'chila, Chachi, Épera, and Awá Indigenous peoples have stewarded the Ecuadorian Choco rainforests/rivers since the 1500s. A "periphery of the periphery", the Ecuadorian Choco's histories and present-day state of ecological and social emergency are not only little known to the world, but also to most of the country's population. Outside the purview of the rest of the nation, the state has neglected its obligation to protect Nature and the communities and, instead, joined companies as accomplices to carry out plunder in ancestral territories. Afro-Ecuadorian and Indigenous people, however, refuse to be treated as disposable. They have joined forces to make the invisible visible and demand access to clean water and a healthy environment.
Together for Water shares the experience of the youth who, through film workshops, seek tools to confront their current reality. They rise up to. re-exist, giving voice to the stories of their elders and finding a common stance against the pollution of their rivers. They ask the world to bear witness and to join them in their struggles.
THE IMPORTANCE OF SHARING OUR STORIES
The 15th of March, 2024, was a super special day for the Afro-descendant community of La Chiquita and the Indigenous Awá community of Guadualito—co-producers of the documentary, Together for Water 💦, with Roots & Routes IC in collaboration with Selvas Producciones! On this day, they got to see the full documentary for the first time! We made the most of the opportunity by asking community leaders and youth to share about why this documentary, Together for Water 💦, matters to them.