Live Yasuni: ITT

In the heart of the Amazon basin lies the most biologically diverse forest on the planet, Yasuní. Yasuní National Park is home to the Waorani and some of the last indigenous peoples still living in isolation in the Amazon, whose ancestral lands sit atop Ecuador’s largest undeveloped oil reserves, the Ishpingo-Tambococha-Tiputini (ITT) oil block.

In the past three decades, Ecuador has become dependent on oil exports for revenue, yet the “resource curse” of oil exploitation has failed to lift most Ecuadorians out of poverty, and has caused extensive watershed degradation, deforestation, toxic pollution, and severe health impacts to the Waorani and other indigenous people.

In 2007, the new government of President Correa has offered an unprecedented and historic proposal: Ecuador will not allow extraction of the ITT oil fields in Yasuní, if the world community can create a compensation trust to leave the oil permanently in the ground and fund Ecuador’s sustainable development into the future. The groups listed on this website portal, LiveYasuni.org, endorse this policy.

Below is some basic information about Yasuni and the ITT proposal. If you would like more information, follow the links to the groups’ websites on the links page. If you would like to help save Yasuní forest, protect the Waorani, and mitigate the climate crisis, send a letter to President Correa and sign the pledge by clicking on Save Yasuni below.

SAVE THE YASUNI

Ecuador’s Yasuni-ITT Proposal

Yasuni contains Ecuador’s largest oil reserves, the 900 million barrel Ishpingo-Tambococha-Tiputini (ITT) oilfields. ITT oil is a heavy crude which is difficult to extract and produces 4 barrels of water for each barrel of oil. This formation water is typically re-injected into the ground, with associated impacts to pristine ecosystems, particularly watersheds.

Among the options for revenue substitution that share parity with ITT's value are debt relief or direct compensation in exchange for carbon credits. The carbon embodied in ITT reserves represents avoided CO2 emissions equal to 436 million tons, equivalent to an avoided cost of mitigation of $4.36 billion (at $10/ ton CO2).

International development banks, as well as private creditors, could swap a portion of Ecuador’s $10 billion external debt for carbon credits for leaving ITT oil in-place. Similarly, private corporations and individuals could purchase CO2 emissions reduction credits to reduce their carbon footprint while simultaneously protecting Yasuni’s incredible biodiversity and the Waorani tribes that depend on the forest for their survival.

Live Yasuní: Indigenous Rights

"What will happen when our children grow up? Where will they live when they are older? Our rivers are tranquil and in the forests we find the food, medicines and other necessities that we need. What will happen when the oil companies finish destroying what we have?"
Letter from Waorani community members to the President of Ecuador in July 2005

These questions go to the heart of what is at stake in Yasuní National Park. The Yasuní region is the ancestral territory of the Waorani indigenous people, who have lived there for at least five centuries, and possibly thousands of years. In the ITT area of Yasuní are some of the last indigenous groups still living in voluntary isolation anywhere in the Amazon. Yasuni’s forests and rivers provide these indigenous communities with all of their life needs. Oil development in the park thus threatens these communities’ very existence and would breach international law on the rights of indigenous peoples.

Live Yasuní: Biodiversity

Yasuní National Park is an area of extreme biodiversity, with what is thought to be the greatest variety of tree species anywhere on the planet. In just 2.5 acres, you will find nearly as many tree species as in the US and Canada combined. The number of species of birds, bats, insects, frogs, fish, and aerial plants in Yasuni also represent global records.

The park’s value is even greater because it qualifies as a “wilderness,” being large in size and mostly intact, especially in the area of the ITT oil block. Yasuní is thus able to support healthy populations of top carnivores, such as jaguars and harpy eagles—the most powerful bird of prey in the world. Smaller parks cannot support these species over the long-term. Yasuni also has more than 20 globally threatened mammal species, including the White-bellied spider monkey and the rare Golden-Mantled Tamarin. Yasuní protects five freshwater mammals, including the rare Giant Otter, which are disappearing elsewhere from hunting, oil pollution, fishing, and motorboat traffic.

Live Yasuní: Economic Transformation

For more than three decades, oil has been a mainstay of the Ecuadorian economy. The result has been widespread pollution, while failing to lift millions of Ecuadorians out of poverty. Now, the Ecuadorian government’s offer to forgo oil development in the ITT portion of Yasuní National Park would be a giant first step towards breaking Ecuador’s dependence on oil. This proposal recognizes natural resource conservation and investment in alternative energy, instead of oil extraction, as the sustainable source of Ecuador’s national wealth. In exchange for keeping the crude oil in the ground, the Ecuadorian government has asked for compensation of $350 million a year for 10 years. It has signaled its willingness to consider placing the funds in a financial trust that could be structured to include international co-administration. These funds would be allocated towards environmental and social development programs, helping Ecuador move towards a sustainable economy while preserving the rainforest, and recognizing the rights of the Waorani and other indigenous communities in Yasuní.

Live Yasuní: Climate Change

Yasuní is on the frontline in the battle to protect the Amazon rainforest and prevent further deforestation, which accounts for between 20 percent and 25 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. The combined process of global warming and large-scale deforestation is creating what scientists call “positive feedback”. As the forest is cleared, the burning or decaying vegetation and soil release massive amounts of carbon dioxide, the principal greenhouse gas, contributing to an acceleration of global climate change. Meanwhile, climate change is already threatening the rainforest, raising temperatures, disrupting rainfall patterns, causing droughts and increased forest fires.

A recent study predicts dramatic changes in the near future in both the timing and amount of moisture available in the northeastern and central sections of the Amazon. As a result, over 40% of Amazon plant species could go extinct from global warming. In contrast, the western Amazon—where Yasuní is—is predicted to maintain a more stable climate. The parks of the western Amazon thus appear to be critical to the survival of thousands of plant species and dependent fauna in the face of global warming.