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The Cofán people, also spelled as A’i Cofán, are one of the oldest surviving indigenous groups in the Amazon rainforest. Spread across the dense jungles of northeastern Ecuador and southeastern Colombia, the Cofán are known not just for their rich cultural heritage and deep-rooted traditions, but also for their fierce and innovative environmental activism. Despite centuries of colonization, missionary conversion, oil exploitation, and political marginalization, the Cofán have remained resilient stewards of the rainforest they call home. Ancestral Roots and Lifestyle The Cofán are believed to have lived in the Amazon for thousands of years. Traditionally, they occupied a large swath of territory along the Aguarico, San Miguel, and Guamués Rivers, where the Amazon basin’s biodiversity flourishes in explosive abundance. Their name for themselves, A’i, means "people" in their language, reflecting a common self-identification shared by many indigenous cultures. The Cofán way of li...