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Yasuní is both a place and a metaphor.
The place is a UNESCO Biopshere Reserve in the Ecuadorian Amazon where two indigenous communities, the Tagaeri and the Taromenane, live in voluntary isolation. Below the biosphere lie the oil fields Isphingo, Tambococha and Tiputini, abbreviated to ITT.
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Pamela L. Martin , Ph.D., Coastal Carolina University
Global Governance from the Amazon: Leaving Oil Underground in Yasuní National Park, Ecuador
Paper Presented at the 51st Convention of the International Studies Association, New Orleans, Louisiana, February 16-21, 2010
 Download the paper 423.60 Kb
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By Pamela L. Martin, PhD, ENS Newswire
CONWAY, South Carolina, February 16, 2010 (ENS) - In December
2009, as the world waited for a global climate change agreement at the
UN Copenhagen climate summit that was never resolved, one bright spot
for conservation remained - the protection of a paradise of
biodiversity, a portion of Yasuni National Park in Ecuador's Amazon.
Ecuador's innovative plan to keep some 850 million barrels of oil
underground and avoid nearly 410 million tons of the greenhouse gas
carbon dioxide was heralded as a first step forward for the planetary
protection of megadiverse areas.
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by Gerard Coffey - Alborada.net
The resignation in January of the Ecuadorian Foreign Minister,
Fander Falconí came as a real shock to most observers; it was probably
not something Falconí himself had foreseen. His departure provoked a
minor earthquake within government circles, but a reading of his
dispute with President Rafael Correa suggests that whatever the
personal grievances, the major problem is not what his resignation
implies for the long term well being of the government. The real issue
is the future of the complex project he was answerable for, and which
led to his exit.
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by Kevin Koenig, Northern Amazon Program Coordinator
, Amazonwatch
Ecuador's historic proposal to keep some 850 million barrels of
crude that lay beneath the country's stunning Yasuní National Park hit
a familiar roadblock last weekend, as President Rafael Correa
undermined his own negotiating team, denounced foreign donors, and
threatened to drill in the ITT oil block (named for the oil wells
Ishpingo, Tambococha, Tiputini) in June.
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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
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
so we can also deliver a hard copy of your letter to the presidents
office)
Presidency of Ecuador
Rafael Correa
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Constitutional Tribunal
Patricio Pazmiño
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
National Assembly
Fernando Cordero
President of the Assembly
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
National Assembly
Biodiversity and Natural Resources Commission
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
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Treehugger, Fander Falconí, Foreign Affairs Minister of Ecuador, has resigned due
to differences with president Rafael Correa in the issue of the
country's plan to protect the Yasuni reservation at the Amazon forest.
The president of Ecuador has also set a deadline for the project.
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New York Times , QUITO, Ecuador (AP) -- Ecuador's foreign minister resigned Tuesday after President Rafael Correa criticized his handling of negotiations to prevent oil drilling in a pristine Amazon reserve.
Fander Falconi was the third government official to resign over a plan to seek international donations of $3 billion over the next 10 years to keep an estimated 850 million barrels of heavy crude oil under the ground in the remote Yasuni National Park.
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Commentary by Nikolas Kozloff, special to mongabay.com
As climate change
negotiations continue full force in the Danish city of Copenhagen,
Latin American countries are hoping the Global North will commit to its
“climate debt” by reducing greenhouse gas emissions and providing
resources to poor nations. It’s certainly an understandable aspiration:
Latin America only produces five per cent of global emissions of carbon
dioxide, a chief greenhouse gas, yet the region has borne the brunt of
extreme weather ranging from droughts to flooding.
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By Naomi Klein - November
11th, 2009
Published in Rolling
Stone
One last chance to save the world—for months, that's how the United
Nations summit on climate change in Copenhagen, which starts in early
December, was being hyped. Officials from 192 countries were finally
going to make a deal to keep global temperatures below catastrophic
levels. The summit called for "that old comic-book sensibility of
uniting in the face of a common danger threatening the Earth," said
Todd Stern, President Obama's chief envoy on climate issues. "It's not
a meteor or a space invader, but the damage to our planet, to our
community, to our children and their children will be just as great."
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amerias program. Alberto Acosta, Eduardo Gudynas, Esperanza Martínez, and Joseph H. Vogel | August 13, 2009
The government of Ecuador has presented a novel proposal to not exploit
the oil reserves of the Yasuní National Park. The economic benefits of
exporting crude oil are limited compared to the social, economic, and
environmental costs of extracting oil from the Amazon, with its
enormous ecological and cultural diversity.
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Kevin Gallagher, Guardian.co.uk. Should the world pay Ecuador not to
extract oil? President Rafael Correa's argument makes perfect economic sense.
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The Economist.
An ambitious scheme to save pristine forest starts to take shape
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Climate Protection (From: Wir Klimaretter ) Germany wants to pay 50 million US dollars
annually into a trust fund so that Ecuador won´t exploit its huge
oil reserves in the jungle.
Gerhard
Dilger, Porto Alegre
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22 members of the European parliament sent a letter to President Correa in which they ask him to extend the ITT proposal to the whole of the Yasuní biosfere reserves, as well as other UNESCO recognized biosfere reserves in Ecuador.
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By Esperanza Martínez
Acción Ecologica
On Februray 5, 2009, presidential decree number 1572 indefinitely
extended an initiative not to exploit crude oil located in Yasuní
National Park in Ecuador.
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President Indefinitely Extends Historic Rainforest Protection Proposal
Quito, Ecuador, Feb 24 (AW)--The President of Ecuador, Rafael Correa,
recently signed a decree that breathed new life into the country’s
pioneer proposal to keep its largest oil field permanently underground in
one of the most pristine areas of rainforest in the world.
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By Christian Schwägerl, Der Spiegel
Ecuador
is the first country in the world to announce plans to leave the oil
reserves beneath its rainforests in the ground. The country wants
foreign businesses, including German companies, to compensate it for
making this sacrifice.
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Lago Agrio,
6th of November 2008
We,
as women, made this document in paper and in your language. We cannot
speak to you because we live far away and because you don't understand
our language.
Look at this paper Mr. President, it contains our words, the words of
the Waorani women.
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New Internationalist. As the deadline for gathering pledges for the Yasuní proposal to
leave oil in the ground in return for financial compensation fast
approaches, pressure is mounting to tap into the global carbon market.
But at what cost, asks Adam Ma’anit?
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