"Ecuador set to vote on banning oil projects in Yasuní National Park " 14 August 2023

In 2007, Ecuador’s then-president, Rafael Correa, called on the world to protect Yasuní, the Amazonian national park that is thought to be one of the most biodiverse places on the planet – and which also sits on the country’s largest oil reserves. Launching the Yasuní-ITT Initiative, Correa asked for international cooperation to secure a US$3.6 billion fund that would help to keep this oil in the ground...

In 2013, after collecting just US$13 million in six years, Correa told press that “the world has failed us”, and declared that studies would begin to explore the exploitation of Yasuní’s reserves at the Ishpingo, Tambococha and Tiputini (ITT) oil fields, also known as Block 43...

After decades of debate, Ecuadorians will decide the fate of oil reserves beneath an Amazon biodiversity hotspot in 20 August referendum.

The No vote: ‘Unviable’

According to official data, reserves of more than 1.6 billion barrels of oil are located within ITT-Block 43, making it the largest hydrocarbon project in Ecuador’s history.

The block is managed by state-owned Petroecuador, but since 2016, four contracts have been signed with Chinese companies Sinopec and Chuanqing Drilling Engineering Company Limited to provide “specific integrated services” for drilling and completion of oil wells, making them responsible for operations.

Petroecuador has reportedly said that a “Yes” vote to ban exploitation of ITT-Block 43 would lead to US$13.8 billion in lost income for the country over the next two decades....

“We will have to think about how to replace this income, because it is necessary for the fight against child malnutrition, and the health, education and security budgets,” President Lasso said.

[...]

The Yes vote: Beyond oil

The Yasuní National Park is home to 1,300 tree species, over 600 bird species and at least 268 fish species, and is listed as a Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO... “In one hectare of Yasuní there is more biodiversity than in the whole of North America,” claims Pedro Bermeo, spokesperson for Yasunidos. “In addition, there are peoples living in voluntary isolation – to exploit it would be ethnocide.”

In a recent report, “China in the Yasuní-ITT”, released by the NGO Latinoamérica Sustentable in July, authors called on the Chinese government to encourage Chinese companies to “withdraw in an orderly manner” from ITT-Block 43...

Leaders from the country’s Amazonian provinces have also joined the “Yes” campaign...