Ecuador sing the UUNN agreement to keep the oil underground

Ecuador's $3.6bn scheme to save its rainforest from exploitation could point the way to sparing other threatened landscapes

By Esmé McAvoy
Sunday, 8 August 2010

The world's first genuinely green energy deal is about to be sealed. In a plan which could be a blueprint for saving large tracts of the planet from exploitation, a greater value is being put on a pristine wilderness than on the oil that lies beneath.

While the world's industrialised countries are building complex carbon markets to enable them to carry on polluting, Ecuador has come up with a much simpler idea for mitigating climate change: leave the oil underground. It is promising to lock up as much as a fifth of its oil reserves indefinitely, providing rich nations pay out at least half the market value of the oil – some $3.6bn – as compensation.

The trail-blazing proposal was first floated in 2007, but it took a step towards reality last week when the UN Development Programme signed an agreement with the Ecuadorean government to be the independent administrator for the project's trust fund. The accord makes Ecuador the only country in the world offering to leave lucrative oil reserves untapped in an attempt to slow climate change.

TO read more go to the Independient

BIlbao Campaign Presentation

Yasuni Green Gold Campaign presentation, Bilbao 2010

"Relanzamiento de Yasuní ITT no tendría efecto mundial", Pablo Dávalos, Ecuatorian Economist

Since 9 months ago the Government has a plan B to exploit oil in Yasun

For nine months the Government has a plan B to exploit oil in Yasuni. Although, on the one hand, the regime insists that its priority is to make 846 million barrels of crude beneath the sill of the Yasuni, the other handles the alternative of extraction....

(keep reading the notice clickin in the link)

http://translate.google.com/translate?js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=1&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fww1.elcomercio.com%2FnoticiaEC.asp%3Fid_noticia%3D328976%26id_seccion%3D8&sl=es&tl=en

Without conditions: ITT - January 2010 by Milagros Aguirre (Traduced by Google translator)

War kills people is not advised. Plan B is to exploit the oil of the ITT, was always ahead of the Plan A, that of keeping it from the very day of submission of the proposal ... It was enough to give a review of the board meetings and Petroecuador Petroamazonas plans.

It was obvious: the fault was to have the First World, imperialism, colonialism, developed pelucones ... We will do! If we are global example of conservation, if not a single cedar trunk escapes the Yasuni, we've done everything possible to protect and guarantee decent life and survival of people living in the park are "contacted" or "uncontacted".

The President has said as usual. Has another term (the third or fourth time that does the same ...) and hardly taxpayers could still believe it may have serious so-called "big small country proposal. He kicked the board of his own ministers (some believe that it would change with the course of history) who were ready to sign a first document. Neither wanted nor did he ever stop exploiting this oil. I had to get out of the propaganda that had him tied up in the international arena. He found that the chain best place Saturday.

Potential funders are now guilty of failure of the strategy of conservation wing of the Ecuadorian government (which has not been adept the Head of State).

They (the President has said) have no right to ask about charity accounts (of so many millions of dollars) to throw on the hat of Ecuadorian mendicant. The conditions that they impose are the companies responsible for running it all ... do not accept the sovereignty or any conditions beyond (to show the operating block 17, which has not yet off a generator despite the offices of the Ministry of Environment has ignored or code of conduct).

Those who bet the Yasuni-ITT campaign will occupy the ranks of the disillusioned. I prefer, and I have said in several articles, the reality principle.

It is branded (at least so it seems) the court. The exploitation of the ITT project is being implemented fully: while some countries visited do not know how many others worked on the banks of the Napo looking for where to spend at Eden Pañacocha tube to mix with the heavy crude from ITT.

It is time to work on the reality principle, to see if we can defend life in the deep forest that is already bored by the earthquake and which has been fertile ground for exploitation. Or is that this exploitation will be made sovereignly and unconditionally kicks?.

Ecuador's Plan to Protect the Amazon Gets Deadline, Minister Resigns

Fander Falconí, Foreign Affairs Minister of Ecuador, has resigned due to differences with president Rafael Correa in the issue of the country's plan to protect the Yasuni reservation at the Amazon forest. The president of Ecuador has also set a deadline for the project. If expectations not met, the Amazon gets it.

Read more here.

YGG in GreenPeace Blog

David, an activist from Greenpeace has written about Yasuni Green Gold Campaign.

You can read his text here:

http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/node/29934

International Organizations ask for an Audit of Yasuni

Ginés Haro Pastor, representing the Yasuni Green Gold Campaign, participated last October 2009 in Ecuador in conducting a verification mission to the Yasuni. What's happening in the area? What are the implications of the proposed non-exploitation of the ITT oil? What are the current problems experienced in the area? These are some questions that led us to organize this mission international. The mission had the opportunity to talk with local authorities, with community members and visiting different areas within the Park and the ITT block. The report included their comments and especially this proposal: "To do an environmental audit of Yasuni". Thus, the ITT Yasuni proposal will be more viable, more accurate and with more impact
The report can be downloaded at the following link (sorry, its in Spanish. do you want to translate?help us spreading the word. If interested writte at info@yasunigreengold.org)

Original Spanish text:

Ginés Haro Pastor, en representación de la Campaña Yasuni Oro Verde, participó el pasado mes de octubre del 2009 en la realización en Ecuador de una misión de verificación al Yasuní. ¿Qué está pasando en la zona? ¿Cuáles son los alcances de la propuesta de no explotación del crudo del ITT? Cuáles son los actuales problemas que se viven en la zona? son algunas de las preguntas que nos llevaron a organizar esta misión internacional.
La misión tuvo la oportunidad de hablar con las autoridades locales, con miembros de las comunidades y visitar diferentes zonas dentro del Yasuní.
El informe de la misión recoge sus observaciones y sobre todo su propuesta: “Hacer una auditoria ambiental del Yasuní”. De esta manera la propuesta Yasuní ITT será más viable, más certera y con mayores impactos

Pueden descargarse el informe en el siguiente link

A letter from the Prince of Wales

Dear Mr Pastor,

The Prince of Wales has asked me to thank you for the book, Yuni Green Gold: The Amazon fight to keep oil underground, which you very kindly enclosed with your letter of 23rd December.

His Royal Highness was deeply touched that you thought of him in the way that you did and looks forward to dipping into your fascinating book at the earliest opportunity.

This comes with The Prince of Wales's warmest good wishes.

Your Sincerely,

Clive Alderton

Message from Penti Baihua, Waorani leader, read in the Yasuni Green Gold Launch event

This Message was read by Karen Morris and her daughter in the Yasuni Green Gold Launch event. We though that this message was already upload in the blog. Really sorry about that. We just delete some personal email adresses because of protect data laws.

"Message from Penti Baihua, Coordinator of Ome Gompote Kiwigimoni Huaorani


My name is Penti Baihua. My people, the Huaorani, have lived in the Amazon Rainforest, in the area known as Yasuni, since before the arrival of the European peoples in the Americas, since before the country of Ecuador was created. We call the rainforest “omede.” We care for her because she gives us everything: food, water, medicine, shelter, and more. She gives us life and our way of life. Without the forest, we could not survive.

My father is Ahua. He is a great warrior, he defended our Huaorani territory with spears. Now I must defend our territory and the forest, omede, with documents and law, speaking Spanish, and travelling far away like the harpy eagle.

I want to thank my friend Bopo for bringing a message that needs to be included in your Yasuni Green Gold campaign. I have two very important things to say:

1. The first thing I want to say is that the oil in the place known as “ITT” – and in all of the area now known as “The Intangible Zone” – must stay in the ground. (The Intangible Zone is a 758,051-hectare area of forest in the Yasuni area, which has which has been designated by the government as a conservation area, off-limits to oil companies and loggers, since 1999. It includes most of the ITT, and additional lands.) The oil must stay in the ground in the ITT and The Intangible Zone because it is our home. If the oil companies destroy all of Yasuni, where will we live?

Since the arrival of the first oil company, Texaco (now part of Chevron), the Huaorani people have suffered many injuries and violations of our human rights. Our traditional territory has been invaded by outsiders who clear the forest, scare away the animals, and contaminate waters, soils, and air. New diseases have sickened and even killed members of our families, and we have been told that our Huaorani culture is savage and sinful, and that the Huaorani people must change and abandon our traditions and way of life.

But we do not want our Huaorani culture and life to disappear. In my community, Bameno, and in other communities in Yasuni, we are proud to live as Huaorani, in harmony with our rainforest environment. We want our children, and our children’s children, to continue to enjoy the benefits of our culture and way of life. Our shaman, Kemperi, has explained why we do not want more oil companies to come, in a message to the peoples who live where the oil companies come from:

“My message is that we are living here. We are living bien, in a good way. No more [oil] companies should come, because already there are enough…. Many companies want to enter, everywhere. But they do not help; they have come to damage the forest. Instead of going hunting, they cut down trees to make paths. Instead of caring for [the forest], they destroy. Where the company lives, it smells nasty; the animals hide; and when the river rises, the manioc and plantain in the low areas have problems. We respect the environment where we live. We like the tourists because they come, and go away. When the company comes, it does not want to leave. Now [the company] is in the habit of offering many things; it says that it comes to do business, but then it makes itself into the owner. Where the company has left its environment, we cannot return. It stays bad. Something must remain for us. Without territory, we cannot live. If they destroy everything, where will we live? We do not want more companies, or more roads. We want to live like Huaorani, we want others to respect our culture.”

2. The second thing I want to say, that I want all of you to understand, is that we, the Yasuni Huaorani who live in the Intangible Zone, are working to defend the forest and our human rights. We are thankful that there is a lot of national and international concern for Yasuni, that so many people want to protect the rainforest that is our home. But we are concerned because so many people in government agencies and nongovernmental organizations want to negotiate and make decisions about Yasuni, without taking us and our rights into account. We now fear for our right to continue to live in freedom, as Huaorani, in our ancestral lands.

My community, Bameno, shares The Intangible Zone with two other communities of ‘contacted’ Huaorani, Bowanamo and Gabaro, and with other Huaorani families who live in voluntary isolation in the forest. The three communities of ‘contacted’ Huaorani (Bameno, Bowanamo and Gabaro) are working together, as communities, to protect the ITT area and the entire Intangible Zone, and the right of our uncontacted neighbors to be left alone. We call ourselves Ome Gompote Kiwigimoni Huaorani, We Defend Our Huaorani Territory, and we have made very specific proposals to the government of Ecuador for how we can work together to protect human rights and the environment in The Intangible Zone. We call upon the government of Ecuador to hear our voice and respect our rights, including our land rights. We call upon them to refrain from sending their military or other functionaries to our territory to live with us as police, or to visit our communities without our consent.

Finally, we invite the representatives of the government of Ecuador, the government of Coca, and the other governments that are present tonight, as well as the Yasuni Green Gold campaign and other NGOs and individuals who are present, to engage in a dialogue with us. We ask that you tell us about your work and proposals for ITT and Yasuni, and that you support us - the local Huaorani communities who are fighting to protect our ancestral lands.

Thank you for coming tonight, and for listening to my message on behalf of the Yasuni Huaorani who live in The Intangible Zone, Ome Gompote Kiwigimoni Huaorani."

Waorani women defend Yasuni

"ASOCIACIÓN DE MUJERES HUAORANI"(women waorani association) resits the oil activities

The good, the bad and the Yasuni

Do you want the good news or the bad news first?

OK, the good news: after months of pressure, the Ecuadorian Government has extended its self-imposed deadline for securing the support of the international community in saving the Yasuni rainforest. The deadline was the 31st December 2008, and since then things haven’t been looking good. Last week we were most alarmed when it transpired that the ‘ITT bloc’ at the heart of the region had been put out to tender for oil companies to gobble up the rights to exploit. We thought it might be all over.

But then, just a few days later, the Ecuadorian Government issued a press release reaffirming their commitment to finding a way to protect the bloc from oil extraction, and listing governments, including Spain, Italy and Germany, who were supporting their proposal for finding enough funding to leave the black stuff in the ground. Once again, the people of Yasuni have been extended a tenuous lifeline - though clearly there are major splits within Ecuador on this.

But it would be premature to crack open the organic sparkling wine.

The bad news is that, having had little luck with their initial proposal: that Western governments should share the cost of financially compensating the Ecuadorian government for its loss of oil revenue, they have come up with a new proposal for funding the preservation of the forest. And it relies entirely on carbon trading. European energy companies and other industrial polluters will be encouraged to buy Yasuni ‘credits’ under the EU Emissions Trading Scheme, and preserve a little bit of rainforest in return for continuing their polluting ways back home.

There are many objections to using the international financial markets to preserve forests - not least that it is handing over responsibility for the long term future of some of the most precious and complex natural systems and habitats on the planet to the very same city bankers and traders who have just brought the global economy crashing to its knees… I just don’t think they know best, do you?

The problems with carbon trading are explored in more depth in the current issue of the New Internationalist, which focuses on ‘Climate Justice’. It is certainly not a solution for the Yasuni. Our campaign to secure a long-term future for the indigenous and local people of the region, who have still not been consulted by either their government or the Western governments supporting the proposal, continues.

By Jess Worth of the New Internationalist Coop

More time to Yasuni¡

Good news - another 6 months has been given to get support for the proposal, until July 2009.

On the 12th of January, only a few days after the minister for oil and
mining announced that the ITT block was now open for bids, the
Ecuadorian government seemed to have a change of heart. Instead a
further 6 months (until the July 2009) was given to the proposal to
not exploit the oil under the heart of the Yasuni in return for
international compensation.

Minister Falconí, who announced this development, said that the
Yasuni-ITT Initiative is a breaking point in the history of Ecuador
and is a symbol of the government of the Civic Revolution.

Reason for this extension seems to be due to heavy support form the
German and Norwegian governments and interest from the European
Parliament, organizations like the IDB and the World Bank and various
organizations of civil society.

However others believe that with national elections coming up in
Ecuador, this is simply a way for Correa to keep the votes of those
eager to protect the Yasuní.

Either way, the interest shown by the international community has
meant that it is now not possible to drop the proposal without
consequence. It is important that we take advantage of this and keep
pushing for a fairer proposal.

Click here to read more

You can read here some of the reactions about the "Yasuni Green Gold" book in Ecuador

To keep going with our "Yasuni Green Gold Campaign" we urgently need more funding. Please support the Campign:

* Donate
* Buy a book (and learn more about Yasuni National Park)
* Help us finding some funding. Writte us to info@yasunigreengold.org

Save Yasuni!

Ecuador: Launch of the "Yasuni Green Gold" book

PRESS RELEASE N. 001

Anita Rivas, Mayor of Francisco de Orellana
Puerto Francisco de Orellana, 12th January 2009

LAUNCH OF THE BOOK YASUNÍ GREEN GOLD, THE AMAZON FIGHT TO KEEP THE OIL IN THE GROUND.

Wednesday, January 21, 2009 at 6:00pm, in the Benjamín Carrión Room of the Ecuadorian Cultural Center in Quito, the launch event of the book "YASUNÍ GREEN GOLD" will take place. It will be organized by the local Government of Francisco de Orellana, as a part of the Yasuní Green Gold International Campaign (promoted by Movimiento IDUN and New Internationalist) whose aim is to restrict development in environmentally fragile areas.

The book "YASUNí GREEN GOLD" uses wonderful photographs to show the world the untold riches that the Yasuní National Park keeps, both in social and biological biodiversity. It also shows the negative impacts caused by the multinational oil companies that have been working in the Ecuadorian Amazon, where the ‘untouchable zone’ is located, and the fight of the inhabitants of this part of Ecuador against the activity of the hydrocarbons to defeat their territory and their human rights.

The authors of this book, Ginés Haro (Spanish) and Geogina Donati (British), with a clear conscience of the value of this natural treasure, were able to classify and organize many photographs from the Digital Photography Bank – property of the local Government of Francisco de Orellana and produced by Mauro Burzio. These pictures show not only the way of life of three ancient indigenous groups – the Huaorani, Kichwa Naparuna and Shuar – but also the way they protect the forest, because it represents the last refuge for the Tagaeri and Taromenane, two indigenous groups who still live in voluntary isolation today.

Anita Rivas, the mayor of Francisco de Orellana, emphasized the importance of this book, now more than ever, when the National Government has announced its decision of exploiting the Ishpingo-Tambococha-Tiputini-ITT camp, an oil reserve that is inside the Yasuní National Park. This decision contradicts the former position of leaving the oil in ground, presented on October 2007.

Anita also appealed to the environmental institutions and many social and cultural organizations to attend this significant event for the country. This event constitutes a way of declaring oneself in favor of the conservation of one of the largest biodiversity reserves, not only in Ecuador, but in the world. Furthermore, this is an exemplary action to avoid climate change.

You can get a copy of the book in the Yasuni Green Gold shop

Social Communication Department
Ximena Narváez
Telephone 062880447 Ext. 210
Email: alcaldia.orellana@gmail.com

Good review in Library Journal in the US - the biggest library magazine!

Good news for the Yasuni Green Gold Book!. We get a good review in Library Journal in the US - the biggest library magazine. Hope that this help to spread the Yasuni word... Thanks a lot to all the people and organisations that makes Yasuni Green Gold Campaign real.

¨This book was written and published to help save Yasuní National Park in Ecuador's Amazon Basin from oil development. Currently, there is an intense struggle taking place between those trying to protect this unique rain forest and the corporations desiring to exploit its low-quality but abundant oil reserves. Yasuní, with more than two million acres, is one of the most biodiverse places in the world and home to three different indigenous peoples who live harmoniously and sustainably with their environment. Most of the book depicts the astounding biological and cultural diversity of the region through remarkable, full-color photographs. It also illustrates the devastation and pollution caused by oil development. Although the Ecuadorian government has protected this region in the past, it is now willing to suspend oil development only if the "international community" compensates Ecuador for its loss of oil revenue. While commending the government's desire to preserve the park, the Yasuní Green Gold campaign focuses on the need to save the region regardless of compensation. With its wonderful photographs and passionate writing, this inexpensive coffee-table book would be an excellent addition to both public and academic libraries, especially those with natural history or environmental collections.

—Ilse Heidmann, Washington State Lib., Olympia

You can find the original text here

Radio Interview:The 300-350 Show: Ecuador.

We speak to Georgina Donati of the Yasuni Green Gold campaign and hear Naomi Klein ponder the wider significance of this proposal.


The 300-350 Show is named after what is now believed to the safe level in parts per million (ppm) of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. This finding is based on the work of James Hansen and his team in a paper titled "Target Atmospheric CO2: Where Should Humanity Aim." http://arxiv.org/abs/0804.1126

Author: www.climateradio.co.uk

Baroness Miller of Chilthorne Domer asks the British Government what they will do about the Yasuní

Recorded on the UK government website is:

Ecuador: Yasuni Rainforest Reserve
Baroness Miller of Chilthorne Domer asked Her Majesty's Government:

What support they intend to offer the Government of Ecuador in preserving the Yasuni rainforest reserve. [HL5494]

The Minister of State, Department of Energy and Climate Change & Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Lord Hunt of Kings Heath): Joan Ruddock met the Yasuni Green Gold Campaign last week. We are supportive of approaches to develop incentives to reduce emissions from both wholesale deforestation and more gradual damage. The UK has contributed £15 million to the World Bank Forest Carbon Partnership Facility which will assist developing countries in working out how they can participate in and benefit from evolving incentive mechanisms for avoided deforestation.

Yasuni Green Gold as part of the resist network

The actions and resistance of those in the Yasuni region have been recognised by the *Resist* movement, a movement connected with a new film by Gael García Bernal.

*Resist* is a quest for people whose actions are shifting our perspectives on the world, a search for people who are inspiring new ways of thinking, acting and being, who are instigating change from below.

Economic Apartheid is the dominant system. Instability is the new norm. Walls are built from within suburbia and across borders, to protect those who can afford to protect themselves, and to keep the displaced and the poor away. The 21st century is not looking healthy.

*Resist* explores the moment when people declare “there is a limit”. And after resistance, what comes next?

*Resist* is a way of looking at the world, a story which transforms the way you see yourself, your path in life and your own strength. It is a search for profound authentic freedom.

Tribal transitions: Yasuni to Tibet

SOAS's openair.fm have come together with Marketplace to bring us a whole day of fun, with money going towards the Yasuni Gren Gold Campaign

11 -13 Marketplace
London
W1 8AH

FREE ENTRY
5 TIGER BEERS £10
5 MINUTES FROM OXFORD CIRCUS TUBE
BRING DRUMS, SHAKERS, FLUTES, TRUMPETS ETC...!

PERFORMERS & SCHEDULE:
- Yasuni Green Gold ( www.yasunigreengold.org ) -
- Movimiento Ecuador UK (www.movimientoecuador.co.uk) -
:: Musicos Equatorianos en vivo con presentacion de instrumentos tradicionales :: 17.00 - 19.30
:: Yasuni Green Gold Campaign presentation:: 19.30 - 20.00
:: SOAS Tibet Society - :: Screening :: Himalaya :: 15.00 - 17.00 w/discussion
:: Face Painting :: All Day
:: T-shirt & Book Sale :: All Day
:: Photo Contest Exhibition:: All Day Winner Announced @ 20.00
- Openair.fm (www.openair.fm ) -
:: Cydetrack :: spinning global freshness - 20.00 - 21.00
:: Ed C :: Disco Funk Maestro - 21.00 - 22.00
:: Steve Rogers :: Legendary Dub Stepper - 22.00 - 23.00

Yasuni Green Gold wrkshop @ Shared Planet

This Sunday the 23rd Yasuní Green Gold will be holding a workshop at the People and Planet Shared Planet conference at the University of Birmingham. If you want to know more about the Yasuni Green Gold campaign come to the workshop, ask questions and get involved from 14.00-15.30

Click here to find out more information...