ECUADOR:
Support Grows for
Letting Sleeping Amazon
Oil Lie
By
Kintto Lucas
QUITO, (IPS) - The
innovative offer by the
government of Ecuador to
refrain from exploiting
its largest oil reserve,
in exchange for
international
compensation for nature
conservation, is
attracting increasing
support.
While oil prices are
soaring, Quito is
adopting the civil
society initiative
calling for the
Ishpingo-Tiputini-Tambococha
(ITT) oil reserve, the
country’s largest, to
remain untapped. The ITT
reserve is located in
Yasuní National Park,
one of the most
biodiverse areas in the
world, in the Amazon
region provinces of
Pastaza and Napo.
The slogans "Yasuní
Belongs to Everyone" and
"Yes to Life, No to
ITT", painted on the
walls in Quito and other
Ecuadorean cities in the
last few days, are a
sign that something new
is happening in this
country.
The idea was set forth
by local environmental
organisations like
Acción Ecológica, has
been promoted by former
minister of mines and
energy Alberto Acosta,
and was taken up by
left-wing President
Rafael Correa.
Quito has suspended oil
drilling at ITT for one
year, and has approached
several foreign
governments,
international bodies and
non-governmental
organisations with the
proposal that Ecuador be
paid an indemnity in
return for leaving the
oil undisturbed, on the
grounds that this would
prevent environmental
damages that would
affect humanity as a
whole.
Correa told IPS that
society is being
encouraged, nationally
and internationally, to
contribute to the
Ecuadorean state in
order to keep the crude
underground.
The hope is to raise
some 350 million dollars
a year, equivalent to 50
percent of what the
state would earn from
the extraction of the
ITT crude.
The envisaged procedure
is that the state would
issue bonds for the
crude that is to remain
untapped, on the
undertaking that it will
never be extracted, and
that the Yasuní National
Park, declared a
Biosphere Reserve by the
United Nations
Educational, Scientific
and Cultural
Organisation (UNESCO) in
1989, will be protected.
Ecuador is basing its
proposal on four key
arguments: the need to
combat climate change,
curb the destruction of
biodiversity, protect
the Huaorani, Tagaeri
and Taromenane
indigenous people, and
transform the country’s
economy by adopting a
new development model.
"The 350 million dollar
contribution would be
for 10 years, after
which it would drop
steadily, because an
alternative source of
income for the state
would be developed, that
could yield dividends
indefinitely," said
environmental activist
Esperanza Martínez, an
expert on oil issues.
So far there have been
over 100 expressions of
interest in supporting
Ecuador’s proposal, from
governments,
international
organisations and
individuals.
Among them is British
musician Sting, whose
wife, Trudie Styler, is
active on behalf of
those affected by
pollution caused by the
U.S. oil company Texaco
in other areas of the
Ecuadorean Amazon.
Another is the
government of Norway,
one of the first to join
the "great green
crusade," as some
environmentalists are
calling it.
Norwegian Deputy Foreign
Minister Raymond
Johansen promised his
country’s support on a
visit to Ecuador in
April.
For its part, Spain has
committed four million
dollars to researching
sustainable management
of the Yasuní National
Park, and said it would
be the first to
contribute to the
compensation fund if it
was found that not
exploiting the crude was
a viable option.
The U.S. environmental
organisation The
Pachamama Alliance also
expressed interest in
providing economic
support.
Former minister Acosta
suggested swapping
Ecuadorean foreign debt
against the country’s
commitment to protect
its Amazon region, to be
negotiated with the
Paris Club, an informal
forum of 19 creditor
nations.
Acosta was involved in
negotiations for this
exchange while he was a
government minister,
from January to June
2007, and said he
believed it was
feasible.
"Ecuador’s foreign
creditors could reduce
our payments or cancel
debt, in exchange for
the oil not being
extracted," Acosta told
IPS.
"We must beware of
irresponsible
exploitation of oil
resources. To continue
the policy of extracting
crude in the Amazon, as
has been the case until
now, would be really
irresponsible," he said.
The non-governmental
Acción Ecologica has
invited international
cooperation with the
campaign, by "buying"
the underground oil.
The proposal would ban
commercial extraction of
oil in the ITT in
perpetuity, and
explicitly recognise the
right of traditional
usage by indigenous
people, particularly
groups like the Tagaeri
and Taromenane who live
in voluntary isolation.
"The extraction and
burning of oil, gas and
coal worldwide cannot
continue unabated,
because carbon dioxide
emissions are already
double what the oceans,
soils and new vegetation
can absorb, and
therefore atmospheric
concentrations continue
to rise," said Martínez,
with regard to factors
causing climate change.
Studies by the state oil
company Petroecuador
indicate that the ITT
block contains reserves
of close to one billion
barrels of heavy crude,
with a ratio of 80
barrels of toxic water
to 20 barrels of oil.
The Brazilian oil
company Petrobras is
already operating in the
Yasuní National Park, in
block 31, while the
Spanish-Argentine firm
Repsol-YPF and Canada’s
EnCana have concessions
for two other reserves
in blocks 17 and 18,
respectively, which are
located near the limits
of the park, and impinge
on it.
The Huaorani people live
in an area of the Yasuní
park close to the ITT.
"We know what oil is. It
does not benefit us, it
has only brought
pollution," said
Huaorani leader Juan
Enomenga.
Sources at the medical
centre in Coca, the
capital of the Amazonian
province of Orellana,
report that after oil
drilling began in the
area the Huaorani people
began to fall sick with
gastrointestinal,
respiratory and skin
diseases.
In May 2006, the
Inter-American
Commission on Human
Rights granted
precautionary measures
in favour of the
Taromenane and Tagaeri
peoples, to protect the
rights and survival of
these groups.
The Yasuní National Park
was created in 1979 with
the aim of protecting
its biodiversity. It has
an area of 982,000
hectares, and more than
500 species of birds,
173 species of mammals,
100 amphibian species,
43 tree frog species and
100 reptile species,
including 62 species of
snakes, have been
identified there.
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