The latest version of our Eye on the Amazon enewsletter is out and online. Among other developments, it highlights the historic agreement the Government of Ecuador has made with the United Nations to create a trust fund in exchange for refraining from drilling for oil in the Yasuni National Park.
Yasuni
Ecuador's Untapped Oil The value of 846 million barrels of oil left in the ground: priceless
Los Angeles Times | What is a barrel of oil worth? Generally, the answer depends on a number of factors, including the mood of the commodities markets, the grade of the oil and demand at the gas pump.
Ecuador Signs $3.6 Billion Deal Not to Exploit Oil-Rich Amazon Reserve
The Guardian | ioneering deal signed with UN sets up trust fund by wealthy countries worth half expected earnings from potential sale of oil
Ecuador Signs Historic Yasuni-ITT Deal with UNDP To Keep Oil in the Soil and CO2 out of the Atmosphere
Praise for Pioneering Proposal is Mixed with Concerns by Indigenous Groups Over New Drilling Planned in Southern Ecuador's Pristine Rainforests
Quito, Ecuador – Ecuador plans to sign an agreement today with the United Nations Development Fund (UNDP) that will open an international trust fund to receive donations supporting the government's proposal to keep some 900 million barrels of oil in the ground.
Acción Ecológica: ¿Qué celebramos con la firma del fideicomiso de la iniciativa Yasuní?
La firma del fideicomiso es un paso importante pues sin él la iniciativa Yasuní no tendría posibilidades de continuar, es más podríamos decir que después de 3 años empieza a concretarse ahora.
Amazon Watch is building on more than 28 years of radical and effective solidarity with Indigenous peoples across the Amazon Basin.
Entre todo/as lo logramos: La firma del fideicomiso para la Iniciativa Yasuní-ITT
Alberto AcostaUn día después de la conmemoración del segundo bicentenario del asesinato de los patriotas por parte de las tropas españolas en la ciudad de Quito, el día 2 de agosto del 2010, en el marco de la Iniciativa Yasuní-ITT
En el Dia de la Tierra CONAIE Pone su Voz en la Cumbre de los Pueblos, Cambio Climatico y Derechos de la Madre Tierra
CONAIE Rechaza Aprobación de Ley de Agua y Plan B para Explotar el Yasuní ITT
Representantes de la Confederación de Nacionalidades Indígenas del Ecuador CONAIE y su máximo líder Marlon Santi, prota
The Wrong Kind of Green
The Nation Magazine | Why did America's leading environmental groups jet to Copenhagen and lobby for policies that will lead to the faster death of the rainforests–and runaway global warming? Why are their lobbyists on Capitol Hill dismissing the only real solutions to climate change as "unworkable" and "unrealistic," as though they we
Yasuní-ITT: Chronicle of a Death Foretold?
by Kevin Koenig, Northern Amazon Program CoordinatorEcuador's historic proposal to keep some 850 million barrels of crude that lay beneath the country's stunning Yasuní National Park hit a familiar roadblock last weekend, as President Rafael Correa undermined his own negotiating team, denounced foreign don
Ecuador Foreign Minister, criticized for Amazon project, quits
Reuters | QUITO (Reuters) - Ecuadorean Foreign Minister Fander Falconi stepped down Tuesday, a source at the ministry said, after President Rafael Correa criticized the way that Falconi was negotiating an Amazon rain forest protection project."He resigned this morning," said the source, who has direct knowledge of the situation
Se resquebraja el proyecto Yasuní
BBC | Quito–El proyecto Yasuní-ITT, que busca dejar petróleo bajo tierra en la Amazonia ecuatoriana a cambio de un aporte económico de la comunidad internacional, se resquebraja.
Ecuador Minister Resigns Over Amazon Oil Project
AP | QUITO, Ecuador (AP) – Ecuador's foreign minister resigned Tuesday after President Rafael Correa criticized his handling of negotiations to prevent oil drilling in a pristine Amazon reserve.Fander Falconi was the third government official to resign over a plan to seek international donations of $3 billion over the nex
US sabotages negotiations on draft REDD text
by Chris Lang / www.redd-monitor.org(bellacenter-COP15-Copenhagen, Denmark)– Discussions late into the night on Monday (14 December 2009) in Copenhagen made the REDD text worse. The main culprits were the US and Colombia.
Ecuador's Amazonian Indian confederation faces varied threats
Indian Country Today | Approximately 100 representatives of Ecuador's Amazonian Indian nations recently gathered in the community of Union Base, near the southeastern town of Puyo, to celebrate the inauguration of new leadership for the Confederation of Indigenous Nations of the Ecuadorian Amazon (CONFENIAE).The ceremony was held in Spanish
Ecuador Says Germany Backs Cash-For-Conservation in Amazon
EFE | QUITO – The Yasuni-ITT initiative, Ecuador's offer to forgo exploiting Amazon oil reserves in exchange for aid from wealthy nations, will take the form of a trust with an initial endowment from Germany, the Andean nation's foreign ministry said Friday.The plan emerged from a meeting in Berlin between Foreign Minister
Yasuní: Ecuador busca cambiar la historia "Una propuesta para cambiar la historia"
BBC Mundo | En esos términos describe el gobierno de Ecuador la iniciativa que promueve para frenar el cambio climático, con la que busca crear un nuevo paradigma.El proyecto, conocido como iniciativa Yasuní-ITT, pretende que se pague a Ecuador para que deje a perpetuidad, sin explotar y bajo tierra, parte de sus reservas petro
Ecuadorian Government Provisionally Delays Suspension of Environmental Organization's Legal Status
Members of Acción Ecológica, a close partner organization of Amazon Watch, were notified yesterday by Ecuador's Ministry of Health that the suspension of their legal status to operate in the country was provisionally put on hold. The Ecuadorian government will reach a final decision on this matter within two months.
Scientists warn of 'irreversible' climate shifts
The Associated Press | COPENHAGEN (AP) — Hundreds of leading scientists warned Thursday that global warming is accelerating beyond the worst predictions and threatening to trigger "irreversible" climate shifts on the planet.Saying there's no excuse for inaction, the nearly 2,000 climate researchers meeting in Copenhagen urged policy-makers
Yasuní: The Last Chance or the First Step?
Yasuní: The Last Chance or the First Step?By Esperanza MartínezAcción EcologicaOn Februray 5, 2009, presidential decree number 1572 indefinitely extended an initiative not to exploit crude oil located in Yasuní National Park in Ecuador.With this, the Yasuní-ITT ini
Ecuador Decree Keeps Oil Companies at Bay
President Indefinitely Extends Historic Rainforest Protection Proposal
Quito, Ecuador, Feb 24 (AW) – The President of Ecuador, Rafael Correa, recently signed a decree that breathed new life into the country’s pioneer proposal to keep its largest oil field permanently underground in one of the most pristine areas of rainforest in the world.
President condemned for uncontacted tribes policy
From Survival InternationalPresident Correa has been condemned by Ecuador's national indigenous peoples' organisation CONAIE over his policy towards uncontacted Indians.'Correa's regime is promoting oil production on land inhabited by uncontacted tribes,' says a statement from CONAIE.The statement w
Gobierno amplia hasta junio plan para evitar extracción de crudo del ITT
AFP | Quito, AFPEcuador extendió hasta junio próximo su plan para lograr una millonaria compensación a cambio de evitar la extracción de unos 920 millones de barriles de petróleo en la selva de la Amazonia, anunció el lunes el canciller Fander Falconí."Todo el proyecto se prolonga durante seis meses adicionales
A CLIMATE GIFT FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS . . . Ecuador Seeks to Commercialize Rainforest
Der Spiegel | Ecuador is the first country in the world to announce plans to leave the oil reserves beneath its rainforests in the ground.
Ecuador Constitution Grants Rights to Nature
New York Times | News accounts of Ecuador�s vote on Sunday approving a new Constitution mainly focused on how its terms could help the country�s leftist leader, Rafael Correa, an American-educated economist, gain and hold more power.
Petrobras to return Amazon oilfield to Ecuador
Reuters | QUITO - Brazilian oil company Petrobras (PETR4.SA: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) has agreed to give back to Ecuador a controversial oilfield in the heart of the Amazon jungle, President Rafael Correa said on Saturday.Correa, a leftist former economy minister and ally of Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da S
Putting nature in Ecuador's constitution
Los Angeles Times---Editorial | In an experiment worth watching, Ecuador will ask voters to decide whether nature has rights.This month, Ecuador will hold the world's first constitutional referendum in which voters will decide, among many other reforms, whether to endow nature with certain unalienable rights.
Ecuador’s New Constitution
Ecuador’s new constitution, approved by their Constituent Assembly July 24 and headed for voter approval in September, includes a number of articles that add environmental protections and make resource extraction in national parks like Yasuni more difficult to pursue.
Yasuni-ITT Proposal Update
Enthusiasm continues to surround the Ecuadorian government’s landmark proposal to keep its largest oil reserve, located beneath Yasuni National Park, in the ground.
Ecuador Celebrates World Environment Day
Marks First Anniversary of ITT Initiative
(Washington, DC-) In order to celebrate World Environment Day as well as the first anniversary of the signing on the Ishipingo-Tambococha-Tiputini (ITT) Initiative, the Embassy of Ecuador in the United States is please to present the status of this unique initiative.
