By: Guadalupe Rodriguez (Save the Rainforest Board)
Yasuní Park in the Ecuadorian Amazon is one of the most biodiverse places in the world. Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa recently decided by decree to carry out oil exploitation in the last of its corners. The harsh reality is that he has taken another step towards the destruction of the Amazon, a process already underway on all fronts.
In fact, within the Yasuní there are three oil blocks: Block 16, Block 31 and the block known as ITT (for Ishpingo, Tambococha and Tiputini). The latter is where the so-called Yasuni Initiative is located.
The Yasuni Initiative in the trash
In 2008, during a UN assembly, Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa launched a proposal to leave the ITT Block's oil underground to avoid the destruction of this part of the jungle, as well as pollution and the emission of 407 million tons of CO2 into the atmosphere.
Since 2010, the country's oil production has been 500,000 barrels per day. Since oil is the second source of income for the state, Ecuador asked the world, in exchange for leaving the oil underground and thus leaving this area "untouched", for compensation of 3.6 billion dollars that any government, institution or person could help to raise. A period of 12 years was given for this.
This money would compensate the Ecuadorian state for the loss that would be incurred by ceasing to exploit the oil existing under part of the Yasuní National Park - 10% of the total surface area of the park.
The Yasuní Initiative was seen as unique in the world, avant-garde, visionary, innovative. Although it falls short in the measure that the other two blocks within the National Park are already being exploited. In fact, Ecuadorian environmentalists have been tireless in denouncing that “all of Yasuni is destroyed and the ITT is only one corner of it.” And despite everything, President Correa came out yesterday to say that “the world has failed us,” an argument used to take the definitive step towards the destruction of the little of Yasuní that remained safe.
The Constitution prohibits oil extraction in protected areas, but - as politics go - in cases of 'national interest' the president can authorize it. And the National Assembly (Ecuador's parliament) has a pro-government majority. Thus President Correa can cross the fragile line that separates the Yasuní from its total destruction.
Although Correa has traveled the world advertising his ecological side and has used the name of Yasuni ad nauseam - despite the fact that the initiative was limited to a small portion of 10% of the park - those who observe him closely say that he has never liked the initiative.
It originally emerged as a purely ecological proposal and was later adopted by Correa's government when he first assumed the presidency. And in fact, it is an open secret that preparations to begin oil exploitation have been underway for months.
Asking for millions of dollars to not exploit the Yasuni, because this would preserve its wealth, and now saying that it is possible to exploit it without damaging it, contains an immense contradiction - and impudence. On the one hand, oil exploitation in the jungle is something enormously destructive and dangerous both for nature and for the human communities that inhabit the area. And on the other hand, it is not acceptable to blame other countries for the destruction.
The fact that these countries have already destroyed their own, and that they have based their growth and wealth largely on the destruction of their nature - as the Ecuadorian president repeats - and on the exploitation of other countries does not mean that the model is exportable.
If Correa wanted to protect this area, he would have to continue working tirelessly in this direction. But instead of betting on another mode of development, his government is betting on the nationalization of natural resources and their extraction according to the same logic.
Despite its supposedly progressive and leftist nature, the reality is that the economic development model that President Correa's government has opted for is surprisingly similar in some aspects to neoliberal policies. Although it is to finance social programs and subsidies, the government has strongly supported extractivism, not only in the oil sector, but also in mining, as well as the expansion of other activities such as agribusiness.
The only difference is that it provides that the benefits do not end up in the hands of transnationals, but in the hands of the State itself. But without having the same resources as the transnationals, because the Ecuadorian State does not have all the infrastructure and machinery necessary to carry out these activities without resorting to private and often foreign companies. A difficult and controversial situation.
Continuous attempts to silence public opinion, silence the media and criminalize social protest are becoming more and more evident. More than 200 social, peasant and indigenous leaders are involved in legal proceedings for having raised their voices against the model. With an arrogant and capricious speech, which fascinates some and frightens others, the president repeats the same arguments until boredom: that he is the most ecological, and all the others are 'infantile environmentalists'. Or fundamentalists, that is what the president calls those who care about nature and defend it in his country and beyond its borders. That he has "the greenest constitution in the history of nature, (which) gives rights to nature" [1]. That he is betting on "the most efficient and clean electrical matrix on the planet" and that he is working on "renewable and clean energy, millions of tons of CO2 that will not be sent into the atmosphere."
But the extraction of oil in the jungle, heavy and polluting crude oil in the heart of the Amazon is a reality in Ecuador, which has become a nightmare riddled with oil spills and pollution. And the new decision of the president wakes us from the only dream that remained. That is why this is what I would ask President Correa to do in an emergency:
-Leave the oil underground.
-Definitely cancel the current round of oil concessions
. -Respect the will and rights of the indigenous and local population
. -Respect the rights of nature included in the Ecuadorian Constitution.
The figures:
– US$3.6 billion was expected to be collected (half the value of the profits that the state was not receiving).
– 336.6 million was raised between committed and collected money [2].
– The ITT Block is estimated to hold between 846 and 920 million barrels of crude oil, approximately 201 million barrels of the country’s oil reserves and equivalent to the amount of oil extracted worldwide in 9 days.
Notes[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=kPpN6NONLbM#at=628 [2]http://www.elcomercio.com/negocios/Yasuni-ITT-explotacion-petroleo-Rafael_Correa_0_974902696.html *Save the Rainforest Directive.
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