Quito, September 1 (teleSUR-RHC)-- Over 470 hectares of primary Amazon forest have been destroyed in the Morona Santiago province of Ecuador, prompting the country’s Ministry of the Environment  to revoke the provincial government’s license to build the Tacuma-Taisha road.  

Some representatives from the ministry said the actions of the provincial government qualify as “ecocide.”      

"There are about 60 infractions of environmental code, for example, we can say that by opening the road and crossing into protected forest, breaking the native vegetation coverage, that has fringe effects as we say in a technical way, they cannot do this. They also cut off water sources, watersheds, obviously this is fresh water that comes from the Cutucu-Shaime forest, and they cannot do this either," National Director of Forests Wladimir Placencia told teleSUR English.     

The Ministry of the Environment had already suspended construction of the Tacuma-Taisha road, but despite this order the provincial government of Morona Santiago continued with the construction, breaking environmental norms in the process. Their license was again revoked in June 2015, after the ministry released a report showing the provincial government has not repaired the damage to the land and has negatively impacted flora and fauna.

"Of course as communities, as Indigenous people who are here living in these communities, we need to be connected by roads. But we need for this road to be well-constructed, with asphalt cap," said President of the Achuar community Macuma Parish Luis Catan, who has witnessed the devastation caused by the road construction.