The Huaorani (also spelled “Waorani”) are hunters and gatherers who have lived in the Amazon Rainforest since before written history. Their traditional territory includes the area now known as Yasuni National Park and Biosphere Reserve, in the Republic of Ecuador. Yasuni is world-renowned for carbon rich forests and extraordinary biological diversity, and is one of the last refuges for fresh water dolphins, jaguars, harpy eagles, tapirs, scarlet macaws, blue macaws, black caiman, howler monkeys, and other threatened and endangered rainforest species.

The Huaorani are legendary, even among other Indigenous peoples in Ecuador’s Amazon region, for their extensive knowledge about the rainforest and its diverse plant and animal life. They are also famous for their hunting skills and long spears and blowguns. For centuries, Huaorani warriors—renowned and feared for their strength and ferocity—defended their ancestral lands from intrusions by outsiders who sought to exploit the Amazon Rainforest and conquer its inhabitants. Now, the Huaorani communities in the Yasuni area must find new ways to protect Ome, the forest that is their home.  Huaorani Community Tours is central to these communities’ remarkable conservation initiative.

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For a more complete overview of the Huaorani, click here.