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Scientists release map for United Nations events, showing Ecuador’s Yasuní National Park is most biodiverse zone in Western Hemisphere
PRESS RELEASE: September 21, 2011
This week, an international team of scientists is releasing a striking new biodiversity map in support of the last big push for Ecuador’s Yasuní-ITT Initiative at the UN General Assembly. “We wanted to show world leaders at the UN just how special Yasuní is,” said Dr. Matt Finer,
one of the scientists behind the map.
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 According
to scientific studies, Yasuní National Park, located in the
Ecuadorian Amazon region in the provinces of Orellana and Pastaza,
is the most biologically diverse region in the world.
On
20 November 1979 Yasuní was declared a National Park,
in recognition of the fact that it contains great natural wealth
that must be preserved.
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The
territory of the Huaorani people traditionally covered an area of
approximately two million hectares, between the right bank of the
Napo River and the left bank of the Curaray River. They maintained
their independence and defended their territory through acts of
warfare. Ongoing contact with the outside world did not begin until
1958, with the establishment of the Summer Institute of Linguistics
(SIL) by US missionaries.
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While there are already
oil operations that affect Yasuní National Park, the ITT
field and Block 31 are in the very heart of the park. An
environmental hearing on the status of the park is underway, and
will result in proposals for the integral recovery of this important
natural reserve.
The ITT project is tied
to Block 31, as they share numerous characteristics in terms of
operations. Both blocks are located within Yasuní National
Park and form the park’s undestroyed frontier.
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The opening of the oil
frontier, if the ITT project is developed, would entail the creation
of a new oil industry zone, where the same impacts would be seen as
those that have been well documented in already operational zones.
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