The book "Sumak Kawsay y Autodeterminación en la Amazonía. Planificación y autogestión territorial de los Kichwa de Pastaza en Ecuador" written by UPS researcher Pablo Ortiz, was published by the International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs – IWGIA, in Copenhagen, Denmark. 

The book contains information on development, indigenous territorial governance and exercise of collective rights, territorial rights and self-government that refer to other problems and relationships such as the one between culture, territories and conflicts.

"The book shows the perspective of life of the Kichwa nationality, communities and families of Pastaza and describes the way in which throughout its recent history, they challenge the dominant vision of extractive capitalism, which turns nature into raw material and merchandise ", stated Ortiz.

In this regard, the question the book tries to answer is: How would the hegemonic perspectives of territorial ordering and management be modified if an intercultural perspective and relationship were incorporated?

The book is organized in seven parts: it begins with a brief retrospective of what the territorial heritage of the Kichwa of Pastaza means; then a brief review of the epistemology of the jungle and its relationship with self-determination; contextualization of the struggle for the territory and the organizational process between 1977 and 2019; it explains what the presence of extractive capital has meant on the indigenous territories of Pastaza.

Ortiz is an associate researcher of IWGIA since 2007 and coordinator of the State and Development Research Group at Universidad Politecnica Salesiana. IWGIA is a body that watches over the rights of indigenous people globally and advises the United Nations to the Commission on Human Rights based in Geneva and the UN Permanent Forum on indigenous issues based in New York.

Download the book: http://upsalesiana.ec/librosumakkawsay