Friends:
For almost three years we have kept alive the proposal to keep the oil underground in the ITT block of Yasuni National Park in Ecuador.
International support has been impressive. However, we are now in a high-risk stage.
 
The initiative to keep the oil underground needed a trust-fund as a tool to, amongst other things:
    1.Guarantee the use of the money according to environmental principles
    2.Guarantee that future governments don’t  exploit these fields
    3.Keep the proposal outside the carbon trade mechanisms

Now the government is threatening to begin the oil exploitation of the ITT block in June, despite of violating more than 20 articles of the Ecuadorian Constitution, among them:
    Article 407 which prohibits oil related activities in protected areas
    Article 57 which protects indigenous peoples in voluntary isolation
    Article 414 which imposes the obligation to promote protection measures to face climate change
Also, local organisations and communities have opposed these oil operations.

Finally, the international and national community backs this initiative of non-exploitation of the oil in Yasuní and there have been many offers of economic contributions by governments, institutions and persons.

If this initiative fails it is not because of lack of support, it will be because of the lack of political willingness of the Ecuadorian government. As a proof of that, since many months the Ecuadorian government has been promoting the oil exploitation in the ITT block and has been preparing the legal instruments for the international bidding for this block. They have maintained and promoted oil activities in other parts of the Yasuní national park. 

What can we do now? What do we have to do now?

Prevent the exploitation of Yasuni with our own efforts.
Yasuní must live, it is our paradise!!

If you want to express your opinion here you will find some useful e-mail addresses to which you can write
(please don’t forget to send us a copy to info@amazoniaporlavida.org so we can also deliver a hard copy of your letter to the presidents office)

Presidency of Ecuador
Rafael Correa
rafael.correa@presidencia.gov.ec

Constitutional Tribunal
Patricio Pazmiño
ppazmino@cce.gov.ec

National Assembly
Fernando Cordero
President of the Assembly
fernando.cordero@asambleanacional.gov.ec

National Assembly
Biodiversity and Natural Resources Commission
comision6@asambleanacional.gov.ec

As delegates discuss various ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in Copenhagen, Ecuador has a simple message: keep untapped oil in the ground. Ivonne Yanez is an environmental activist from Ecuador, one of the larger oil producing countries in Latin America. Ecuador is believed to be sitting on an oil reserve of hundreds of millions of barrels. But the oil is located in the Yasuni National Park, one of the most biodiverse places on the planet. Ecuador has launched a unique campaign to have the international community compensate the country in exchange for keeping the oil in the ground.