Help us protect the headwaters of the Amazon from oil companies, elders say

Domingo Peas, indigenous coordinator of the Amazon Sacred Headwaters Initiative addresses community members during an assembly in Ecuador in this handout image taken in 2019. Amazon Sacred Headwaters Initiative/Tyson Miller/Handout via REUTERS

SANTIAGO/LIMA (Reuters) - Indigenous leaders are calling for help to stop oil companies drilling in the headwaters of the Amazon river in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, warning that encroaching on their homelands would destroy a bulwark against climate change.

In video shared with Reuters on International Day for Biological Diversity on Friday, communities in Peru and Ecuador said pressure to exploit their territory would intensify as governments seek to reboot economies reeling from the virus.