As climate change negotiations continue full force in the Danish city of Copenhagen, Latin American countries are hoping the Global North will commit to its “climate debt” by reducing greenhouse gas emissions and providing resources to poor nations. It’s certainly an understandable aspiration: Latin America only produces five per cent of global emissions of carbon dioxide, a chief greenhouse gas, yet the region has borne the brunt of extreme weather ranging from droughts to flooding.
One key figure pressuring the Global North to live up to its responsibilities is Rafael Correa, firebrand president of the small Andean nation of Ecuador. A popular leader recently elected to a second presidential term, Correa has allied himself to Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez and the so-called leftist “Pink Tide” sweeping through South America. He’s the first leftist to win the presidency in Ecuador since the country returned to civilian rule in 1979. Indignantly, Correa blames rich nations for disastrous floods which destroyed hundreds of millions of dollars worth of crops in his country last year.
Oil pipeline in the Amazon rainforest of Ecuador
While it’s still unclear whether Correa will put in a personal appearance in Copenhagen, Ecuadoran officials will certainly be raising an issue of key importance to their countrymen: the fate of the Amazon jungle. While the largest swathe of the Amazon lies in Brazil, Ecuador also has its share of rainforest in the so-called Oriente region.
Unfortunately however, U.S. oil company Texaco despoiled the Oriente over the course of many years which resulted in an environmental and public health emergency for local indigenous peoples in the area [to learn more about Texaco’s black history in Ecuador, read my recent online review of the documentary film Crude].
To his credit, Correa has voiced support for Indians who have launched an environmental lawsuit against Texaco — now Chevron. Ambitiously however the combative Ecuadoran president has gone yet further in pushing for environmental protection in the Amazon. Under his Yasuní-ITT initiative, Ecuador would forgo oil exploitation in an Amazon nature reserve in exchange for billions of dollars in aid from wealthy nations.
Located in the Ecuadoran Amazon, Yasuní national park is home to the largest number of tree species per hectare on the planet and also contains endangered monkeys, pumas and jaguars. The Ecuadoran government has stated that it would not extract oil within the so-called Ishpingo-Tambococha-Tiputini (or ITT) oil fields located in Yasuní if the Global North provided the Andean nation with necessary funding.
In addition to rare animals Yasuní is home to the Taromenane, one of the world’s last uncontacted indigenous tribes. As oil presence has grown in the vicinity these hunter gatherers have come under threat: in 2003 unknown assailants killed 26 Taromenane in an ambush. The Indians have hit back and are thought to be the authors of a recent spear attack upon a settler family. One victim of the attack, a 12-year old girl, told oil workers shortly before she died that her attackers were almost entirely naked.
Not only would Correa’s ingenious plan take pressure off the Taromenane but also help to ameliorate climate change. Indeed, the President says that if Ecuador were to avoid burning Yasuní oil — and logging the rainforest to get it — the world might avoid the creation of 547 million tons of carbon dioxide going into the atmosphere. It’s a fabulous idea and best of all the Correa government would use proceeds from the ITT-Yasuní trust to prevent further deforestation.
For a country like Ecuador, getting at Yasuní’s oil is a tempting target: currently the Andean nation derives a whopping 35% of its public spending budget from petroleum exports. Correa could well use the added money: currently half the Ecuadoran population lives in poverty.
(10/27/2009) Ecuador’s Yasuni National Park is full of wealth: it is one of the richest places on earth in terms of biodiversity; it is home to the indigenous Waorani people, as well as several uncontacted tr