Save the Yasuni Rainforest

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Letter from Woaorani community members to the President of Ecuador in July 2005:

"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 left?"

Live Yasuni Campaign (2007)

Yasuní National Park is at the turning point in the battle to protect the Amazon rainforest and its indigenous peoples from the environmental devastation caused by oil development. Covering nearly 2.5 million acres of primary tropical rainforest at the intersection of the Andes, the Amazon and the equator, Yasuní is the ancestral territory of the Woarani people, as well as other indigenous tribes, living in voluntary isolation, principally the Tagaeri and the Taramenane.

As a result of its unique location, Yasuní is an area of extreme biodiversity, containing what are thought to be the greatest variety of tree and insect species anywhere on the planet. In just 2.5 acres, you will find nearly as many tree species as in all of the US and Canada combined.

For more than three decades, oil has been the cornerstone of the Ecuadorian economy. The result has been widespread contamination, while failing to lift millions of Ecuadorians out of poverty. Indigenous peoples have been particularly hard-hit, bearing the brunt of the environmental and health consequences. The development of the Ishpingo-Tambococha-Tiputini (ITT) oil field, Ecuador’s largest reserve in the Yasuní National Park, would not be any different.

The Waorani, who have lived in Yasuní for at least five centuries, and possibly thousands of years, would be directly affected by the development of the ITT oil field. The direct and indirect impacts from oil drilling would include degraded ecosystems, colonization facilitated by road-building, illegal logging and hunting, and ground water contamination from the oil drilling process. Yasuni’s forests and rivers provide indigenous communities with all of their life needs. Oil development in the park thus threatens these communities’ very existence given their lack of immunity to outside diseases and would breach international law on the rights of indigenous peoples.

In April of 2007, the Ecuadorian government under President Rafael Correa stated its willingness to forgo development of the ITT oilfields if the international community compensates Ecuador for the projected forgone revenue. The compensation would range between $2 billion to $3.5 billion. The government indicates willingness to commit these funds towards sustainable social development programs. But the challenge falls on individuals around the world to demonstrate to Ecuador and the international community that a conservation path is possible, and an economically viable alternative to oil extraction. The government has proposed a program where contributors may be able to keep a barrel of oil permanently in the ground for as little as $5 to $10 per barrel.

The estimated amount of carbon that would result from burning of the ITT reserve would be in the hundreds of millions of tons, with devastating consequences for our climate. Amazon Watch supports this initiative.

For more information or to show your support and make a pledge, visit: www.liveyasuni.org

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