What must be considered a defeat for innovative means to save Earth's remaining forests is Ecuador's President Correa announcement Thursday that oil drilling may begin in Yasuni National Park, habitat for a myriad of species including the indigenous hunter-gatherers that choose to live there
[L photo]. The announcement marks the failure of the six-year old Yasuni-ITT funding initiative which intended to compensate Ecuador foregoing development of the Tambococha-Tiputini oil field. The field is thought to contain 20% of the country's oil reserves. Ecuador is a member of OPEC and depends on oil revenue for a third of its national budget. Half of its production is delivered to the United States. The fund only attracted $13.3 million compared to $3.6 billion needed to compensate for half of the undeveloped reserves. The infrastructure to exploit the oil is place with roads begin constructed in known jaguar habitat. The exploration is too take place in about 1% of the reserve's 3,800 sq. miles.
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| Hoatzin, credit Mark Gurney |
Correa seemed visibly disappointed in his TV address saying the "world has failed us". Correa disparaged the "great hypocracy" of developed nations which labeled the fund charity, but a "co-responsibility in the face of climate change," since 400 million tons of CO₂ would have been avoided had the fund succeeded.
The fund received pledges of $300 million by January, but only a fraction actually deposited in the trust account. Ecologists expressed dismay at the decision, while some of Correa's political opponents said the move was an attempt to blame rich countries for a development decision already reached by his government. The fund was criticized for giving Ecuador unlimited discretion in how the money was to be spent. In Ecuador Correa is not viewed as an environmentalist.
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| credit: Dolores Ochoa, AP |
Yasuni National Park contains 25 mammal species protected under CITES or listed as Endangered, Threatened or Vulnerable. Dr. Peter English of University of Texas at Austin said Yasuni is the most biologically diverse forest in South America. He documented 596 bird species in his study, but amphibians, mammals and vascular plants all reach maximum diversity in Yasuni
[see species slide show]. Scientists estimate that a single hectare of Yasuni forest contains 100,000 insect species. Yasuni is truly an Eden put on the auction block of international oil.
