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ecuadorian government sign no oil drilling deal in the amazon
Ecuadorian Government sign no oil drilling deal in the Amazon
The Ecuadorian government has signed a historic deal to not drill for oil in the Yasuni National Park, the ancestral home of the Huaorani indigenous people.
The Ecuadorian Amazon has very rich oils reserves. It is estimated that under the Yasuni National Park lies around 900 million barrels of crude. Yasuni, covering 2.5 million acres of primary tropical forest is also a remote part of the Amazon, is an area of extreme biodiversity with what is thought to be the highest density of trees and insects in the world. It is also the ancestral home of the Huaorani people, an indigenous group that had virtually no contact with the outside world until the arrival of missionaries in the late 1950s.
The deal brokered by the UNDP has lead to the creation of a trust fund into which foreign governments will place money to compensate Ecuador for the loss of revenue from not exploiting the oil reserves under the National Park. France, Switzerland, Sweden, Germany and Spain are amongst the countries that have already committed to the scheme pledging, collectively, GB£1.1 billion, about half of the amount the Ecuadorian government is asking for.
Oil prospecting and extraction is the single greatest threat to the rich biodiversity of the area and to the traditional way of life of the Huaorani people. Not only will this deal help protect the National Park and its inhabitants, but will also, hopefully, prevent some 400 million tonnes of carbon dioxide from going into the atmosphere. This could be a precursor to similar schemes in other countries including Guatemala, Vietnam and Nigeria.
Join Steppes Discovery on a trip to the Yasuni Biosphere Reserve and experience for yourself the rich biodiversity and culture of the Huaorani people in the the buffer zone of the park itself.
Click here for more information.
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