| Save Yasuni National Park plea |
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| Thursday, 12 July 2007 | |
Indigenous communities from Yasuni National Park, home to some of
the most biodiverse primary tropical rainforest on the planet, sent a
message to the world today pleading to save the park from devastation
by the oil industry.
Led by Ecuador's Vice President Lenin Moreno Garces,
nearly 100 people joined together to spell the words "Live Yasuni" in
the heart of this pristine National Park as a helicopter carrying
photographers hovered overhead. The images will be sent to the world
feed for the Live Earth event on June 7, 2007, a series of televised
concerts from cities around the world organised by former US Vice
President Al Gore to highlight the threat of global warming. The Yasuni images form part of several Live Earth events focusing attention on the plight of the Ecuadorian Amazon:
The Yasuni event was organised to highlight the Ecuadorian Government's proposal to keep that nation's largest oil reserve, in the ground forever, saving the park and avoiding an estimated 436 million tons of carbon emissions. Yasuni, home to several indigenous groups, including some of the last still living in isolation anywhere in the Amazon, sits atop the Ishpingo-Tambococha-Tiputini (ITT) oilfields.
Bitter experience
In a bid to avoid drilling in the park, Ecuador
President Rafael Correa has proposed to the international community
that the oil could be left in the ground in exchange for financial
commitments ranging from $2 billion to $3.5 billion to offset the lost
oil revenues. The government plans to invest the funds in sustainable
social development programs.
Quito and international environmental groups are
now working to meet this challenge, exploring a variety of financial
mechanisms including debt relief, carbon credits, and traditional
fundraising. The presence of Vice President Moreno Garces in Yasuni,
where he met members of the Waorani, Quichua and Cofan indigenous
groups that live there, was a signal of the Ecuadorian government’s
intent.
Ecuador’s experience with the oil industry has been
bitter. Texaco (now Chevron) allegedly dumped 18 billion gallons of
toxic wastewater directly into the rainforest in northern Ecuador over
a period of 25 years, causing a public health crisis among 30,000 local
people who now suffer an epidemic of cancers.
They are suing Chevron for an environmental
remediation provisionally priced at $6 billion in a landmark
class-action lawsuit expected to conclude next year. On Tuesday,
representatives of the affected communities posed for another series of
aerial photos, forming the letters 'SOS' and the word 'Justice' in
Spanish at one of Chevron's former well-sites as a helicopter circled
overhead. |
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