The community of Sarayaku is located on the banks of river Bobonaza in the Amazon rainforest of Ecuador, one of the few remaining inviolate regions of the Amazon Basin. The remote village can only be reached by dugout canoes or by little four-seater airplanes. The Kichwa Indians have inhabited this territory for centuries and still cultivate their traditional lifestyle, supporting themselves mainly by fishing, hunting and sustainable agriculture.

In the area, large oil reserves are located. Although the community received the official title for its 135,000 hectares (333,000 acres) of ground in 1992, the natural resources below the soil, according to Ecuadorian law, belong to the state, which has divided the land into blocks and is auctioning concessions for oil exploitation to international companies. American ConocoPhilipps, for instance, or the Argentinean CGC, have had drilling rights on Sarayaku territory since 1996.

Because of its grave environmental and social impacts – to be observed especially in the north of the country, where oil operations have been going on now for the last 40 years – the community decided to strongly oppose any development of the commodity on their land. Offers of money from the oil companies haven't swayed them. Even a proposal of 60,000 US dollars to the village's governing council was rejected. As a consequence of their opposition, tribal leaders as well as traditional authorities have received death threats and the natives have suffered physical attacks and other means of intimidation at the hands of the Ecuadorian military and the oil companies.

The inhabitants of Sarayaku have worked out a unique strategy to oppose oil exploitation: their Plan de Vida. This plan is intended to regulate the sustainable development of the community during the next 50 years and includes programs for the preservation of the primary rainforest, the repopulation of threatened wildlife, a health-care program for all villagers, as well as an education program including kindergardens, several schools, a college, and the first university in the middle of the jungle, a cooperative project with the Universities of Cuenca and the Spanish Llerida. Internet access via satellite and their own website in Spanish and English is helping the Sarayaku people to make their cause and activities known internationally.

Exemplary in their efforts for self-determination and the preservation of their living space as well as their traditions, the Sarayaku are sought-after speakers all over Latin America. In lectures and workshops they teach other indigenous communities about sustainable, autonomous municipality management and show them possibilities for resistance against the oil companies and woodchoppers which want to destroy their livelihoods, as well as effective ways for the protection of the rainforest.