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On Saturday, April 12th, something incredibly inspiring happened in Ecuador. Yasunidos or “United for Yasuní,” a civil society collective of environmentalists, artists, activists, and indigenous leaders, delivered nearly 800,000 signatures to the National Elections Commission (CBE) calling for a national referendum to decide if oil should remain under Block 43/ITT in Yasuní National Park indefinitely. A couple of months ago collecting over 600,000 signatures, the amount needed to qualify for a referendum, seemed almost impossible. But, for Yasunidos and its allies around the world, what was impossible – unfathomable, really – was the government proposal to drill in Yasuní-ITT, one of the last remaining parts of the Yasuní National Park free from oil drilling. Yasuní is an area of extremely high biodiversity located in the Amazon region of Ecuador. The park was declared a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in 1989 and contains what are thought to be the greatest number of plant and animal species anywhere on the planet including one of the biggest populations of jaguars. It is also home to numerous indigenous peoples including two nomadic Waorani clans, the Tagaeri and Taromenane, who shun contact with the outside world. |
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