Shining a Light on Yasuní

Since 1996 Amazon Watch has been supporting efforts to protect the global treasure that is the Amazon rainforest. We’ve helped protect the sacred lands of the U’wa from Occidental Petroleum in Colombia, backed the Achuar in defending their ancestral lands from Talisman Energy, and supported the Kichwa people of Sarayaku in their fight to keep oil operations out of their territory. We’ve been busy.

And since 2007 we’ve been supporting the Yasuní-ITT Initiative – a bold plan launched by Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa to “keep the oil in the soil” in one of the world’s most biodiverse rainforests.

We are disappointed with Correa’s announcement last week to cancel the initiative and allow drilling in Yasuní National Park. The president blames the international community for not pitching in enough over the last six years. But Amazon Watch is not giving up. We’re going to do everything we can to protect Yasuní and the people who live there from oil drilling and all the dangers that come with it.

Since last week we’ve been focused on bringing this news to the international community, and it’s worked. We’ve helped garner stories in the New York Times, Washington Post, PBS and The Guardian, among others. In Spanish language media alone there have been over 350 stories around Yasuní. This is big.

With your support we can continue to get the word out so that the Yasuní issue cannot be swept under the rug.

Please make a donation today. We can only do this kind of work because of your support.

Thank you for your partnership in protecting one of the greatest last wild places on Earth.

For the Amazon,

Leila Salazar-López
Program Dire