The Tagaeri are an eastern Waorani people living in Yasuni National Park, in the Ecuadorian Amazon Basin, named after one of their members, Tagae.
In the 1990s, eastern Waorani groups moved westward, near to the Kichwa community of Curaray, in part to escape the effects of petroleum exploration and logging activity and possibly due to reduced game stocks.
[1] More recently, the body of a 37-year-old rare wood poacher, Luis Castellanos, was found in March 2008 in the Yasuni area, with nine iron-headed spears jutting out of his stomach.
They are also threatened by illegal loggers of tropical hardwoods, smugglers, settlers, and oil companies moving into the area, with drilling taking place ever closer to their lands.
[3] Entities attempting to protect the Tagaeri and other Amazonian peoples in the area include the Ecuadorian government's Yasuní-ITT Initiative, launched by President Rafael Correa in 2007.