BBC Nemonte Nenquimo: The indigenous leader named 'environmental hero'

An indigenous leader from the Ecuadorean Amazon is one of the winners of the Goldman environmental prize, which recognises grassroots activism. Nemonte Nenquimo was chosen for her success in protecting 500,000 acres of rainforest from oil extraction. She and fellow members of the Waorani indigenous group took the Ecuadorean government to court over its plans to put their territory up for sale. Their 2019 legal victory set a legal precedent for indigenous rights. 'Our rainforest is not for sale' For Nemonte Nenquimo, protecting the environment was less a choice than a legacy she decided she had to carry on. "The Waorani people have always been protectors, they have defended their territory and their culture for thousands of years," she tells the BBC. The Waorani people Nemonte Nenquimo celebrates with other Waorani after a court ruled in their favour in Puro, Ecuador, on April 26, 2019 Number around 5,000 people Traditional hunter-gatherers organised in small clan settlements Among the most recently contacted peoples: reached in 1958 by US missionaries Waorani territory overlaps with Yasuni National Park, one of the world's most biodiverse ecosystems 80% of the Waorani now live in an area one-tenth the size of their ancestral lands Ms Nenquimo says that when she was a child she loved to listen to the elders tell stories of how the Waorani lived before they were contacted by missionaries in the 1950s. "My grandfather was a leader and he protected our land from incursions from outsiders, he literally spearheaded that defence by confronting intruders, spear in hand." Ms Nenquimo says that from the age of five, she was encouraged by the elders to become a leader herself. Quotebox Nemonte Nenquimo: "When it comes to taking decisions, the women pull no punches, and everyone listens up." "Historically, the Waorani women have been the ones to make the decisions, the men went to war," she explains. "Waorani women made the men listen to them and it wasn't until we had contact with the evangelical missionaries that we were told that God created Adam and that Eve came second and was created from Adam's rib, that's when the confusion [about women's role] started." But Ms Nenquimo insists that the role of women in Waorani society continues to be a key one. "When it comes to taking decisions, the women pull no punches, and everyone listens up". Nemonte Nenquimo says that she may be the first woman to have been chosen as president of the Waorani of Pastaza province but "there are many women leaders" among the Waorani, who she says have been guiding her in her fight to protect their territory from oil extraction. While Ms Nenquimo grew up in an area of rainforest where there was no drilling for oil, she recalls the first time her father took her to visit her aunts, who lived near an oil well.