Ecuadorian environmentalists and their opponents agree on one thing: the battle for Yasuni Park is not over. The first celebrated, Sunday, August 20, the victory of yes in the referendum that they had been asking for ten years. By a majority of 59%, the Ecuadorians voted in favor of an interruption of oil production from Block 43 Ishpingo, Tambococha and Tiputini (ITT) in the Amazonian reserve of Yasuni, located in the northeast of the country. Those in favor of the no are worried about the economic consequences of this citizen’s decision, when they do not contest its validity.
“Ecuador has given an example of climate democracy to the whole world”, rejoice the activists of Yasunidos, the collective which has been fighting since 2013 to obtain the closure of the ITT deposit. Mobilized alongside the natives, they now intend to enforce the results of the polls and the decision of the Constitutional Court. By authorizing the holding of the referendum, the court had in fact specified that in the event of a yes victory, the authorities would have one year to proceed with the dismantling “progressive and orderly” oil installations deployed in the park.
However, the authorities consider the deadline set by the Court to be unrealistic. Three days after the referendum, the Minister of Energy and Mines, Fernando Santos, declared to the press that “Never in the history of oil has such a large deposit been closed so suddenly”. Block 43 produces some 58,000 barrels of crude per day, or 12% of Ecuador’s national production. The dismantling of oil installations is “a very complex process”, reminded the Minister, since it is necessary to dismantle infrastructures “which represent thousands of tons of steel, cables, installations of all kinds”. According to Mr. Santos, “the one-year deadline is physically impossible to meet, unless bulldozers are used”.
“Biosphere Reserve”
Covering an area of 10,000 square kilometres, Yasuni National Park is both one of the most biodiverse regions in the world and the habitat of the last indigenous peoples in a state of voluntary isolation in the forest. Ecuadorian Amazon. In 1989, the UN declared it “biosphere reserve”. After proposing not to exploit the oil from Block 43 in exchange for aid from the international community, and failing to obtain this, President Rafael Correa obtained the green light from the National Assembly in 2013 for the operating ITT deposits. Crude extraction started there in 2016.
You have 58.02% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.