Anita’s visit puts Yasuní on the map

Phew. It’s the end of our Grand Launch Week for the Yasuní campaign, and I think we’ve really got somewhere. Anita Rivas, the mayor of Orellana in the Yasuní region, arrived in the UK last weekend. In the space of just five days, and with a little help from her friends, she has managed to put Yasuní on the agendas of British MPs, government officials and even a minister.

Her message was simple but powerful. ‘The biggest issue today is climate change. By helping Yasuní, you will be helping the world.’ Her aim was to persuade the British Government to support Ecuador’s proposal to leave the oil in the ground and preserve the extraordinary Yasuní rainforest. But most importantly, she was here to ensure that the rights and needs of local and indigenous people are taken into account in the process.

The week has been a whirl of lobbying, meetings and interviews. We’re all exhausted - though Anita doesn’t have time to be, she’s gone to Luxumbourg for the day to address local governments before heading down to Spain for another week’s of campaigning. But I think it’s been a storming success.

It began on Monday with a meeting with officials from three different government departments working on forests and climate change. They did not know about the proposal (despite it having been presented to the UN and the EU). So our crack campaign team, comprising Anita, Georgie and Ginés from the Yasuni Green Gold campaign, and Richard and I from NI, spent the rest of the week trying to put it on the Government’s agenda.

Highlights included:
- A launch event, attended by 200 people including experts on Ecuador, forests, climate change and indigenous people. Speakers included Anita, the deputy Ambassador of Ecuador, and environmentalist Tony Juniper.
- Agreement from the Ecuadorian Embassy that they will formally approach the British Government with the proposal in the next few weeks.
- A promise from Steve Webb, Lib Dem spokesperson on energy and climate change, to meet with the Ecuadorian Ambassador about improving the proposal by allowing local people to participate in developing it.
- Going into Waterstones with Georgie, Gines and Anita, to find copies of the Yasuní Green Gold book on the shelves! (See photo below).
- A session in the House of Commons, chaired by Colin Challen MP who is chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Climate Change. It was attended by MPs, Lords and a Baroness. The campaign received enthusiastic support and offers of help from two other APPGs.
- Colin Challen also tabled an Early Day Motion - which is like a petition for MPs to sign - in full support of the Yasuní Green Gold campaign. If you live in Britain, get in touch with your MP and ask them to sign EDM 2192!

It all culminated yesterday in a really positive meeting with new Minister for Energy and Climate Change, Joan Ruddock. She told us that ‘the Government is in favour of such initiatives - our sympathies and goodwill are there.’ It was clear that the door is open. As soon as the Ecuadorian embassy contacts her, she will begin to consider whether Britain can help make the plan happen.

So watch this space…

I’m worried though. It’s easy to agree that the oil should stay in the ground in principle. The controversy begins with discussions about where the money is going to come from.

There’s a real risk that Yasuní will be seized upon by carbon trading firms intent on turning it into a giant carbon offset, and the once visionary scheme will lose its integrity, its potential for involving and benefiting local people, and any contribution it might make to overall global carbon emissions reductions. Carbon trading lobbyists from three different banks turned up to the Yasuní Parliamentary event to express their enthusiasm for getting involved, and wanting to know who to lobby. Next week a report commissioned by the British Government will come out strongly in favour of financing forest preservation through the international carbon markets.

So, not content with allowing bankers to screw up our economy, we’re now going to put them in charge of solving climate change???? Whatever planet these people are on, it’s not going to last much longer at this rate.

The Yasuní campaign is about more than just finding the money to preserve the forest. It’s about doing so in the right way. A way that is fair, and effective, and will benefit the local people who live there over the long term. As Anita put it:

‘Carbon trading is a weak way of dealing with this problem - it’s like putting the wrong sort of medicine in your body. This is about the larger countries needing to recognize that smaller countries like Ecuador are giving the world a lot in terms of ecology. They need to start giving something back; to change their exploitative attitude and start paying for what they are getting. This why the international campaign to save Yasuní is so important. There will be grave consequences for the world if it is not preserved.’

Also published in the NI Yasuni blog

A very quick summery of what went down in Spain...

Sunday: We were in Tarragona with Ali Supay, Marlon Santi president of CONAIE and Jose Proaño Ecuadorian anthropologist and activist. We all met in Tarragona with local organisations there such as Repsol Mata, to talk about the different issues in the Yasuni and for the indigenous people of the region.

Monday: Morning we do a radio interview in Altafulle and head off to Barcelona to the office of I-With where Gines and Anita are immediately thrust onto the phone to do more interviews.

Tuesday: We have the presentation of the book in Barcelona in the UOC in the morning after yet more radio interviews. Present are various organisations with which we have been working in Barcelona such as Ideatik, Eutopia, Consultants without boarders and I-with as well as a representative from the Ecuadorian Embassy, Marlon, Jose and other groups.
From here we sped off to Girona where we had another presentation at the University of Girona where we are met by Engineers without Borders, already familiar with the situation in the Yasuni and enthusiastic to help where they can.

Wednesday: We were off bright and early to Madrid where we have a press conference at the Circulo de Bellas Artes. Again we are met by a representative of the Ecuadorian Embassy and are thrilled when El Mundo, the most read newspaper in Spain, published a huge feature length article about the Yasuni and the campaign following the meeting.

Gines and Anita then whizz off to some more radio interviews and then a meeting with the Department for International Development…

That evening we head off to Seville!


Thursday: Early that morning we are picked up and taken to Cadiz where we are bundled into the university press room to sign contracts of co-operation. We then go to the local government where we are given the grand tour… That evening we go back to the university to give another presentation of the campaign and book.


Friday: Is off to the Diputación de Cordoba, who are also very involved in the region and keen to help.

Thursday, Joan Ruddock and Amnesty International

Thursday afternoon we head off once again to Westminister to meet with Joan Ruddock from the Depatment for Energy and Climate Change. She has managed to squeeze us in between the madness of the creation of this new department. We are told by her PA that she usually does not have a moment to spare but had managed to find a space for us as she was so interested in the campaign. We filled Joan in on the campaign quickly and Anita told her about how her and Lupe had lead a people´s revolution in Orellana demanding that their basic rights be met. She was very supportive of the Yasuni Green Gold Camapign, she agreed with us that the ITT proposal was important and that the British government would support it in principal. She also agreed that inorder to get the proposal through there needed to be the clarification and gaurentees the campaign asked for and that when the proposal is presented to her she would relay these points. She asked us to keep her updated on the status of the proposal and progress of the campaign. Another good result!


After this we sped off to Amnesty International. Anita was thrilled for the chance to thank in person the organisation that had played such a big part in releasing her friend and fellow activist Guadalupe Llori. They were also excitied to meet Anita and hear all about her human rights work.

Monday morning… meeting at Dfid (UK Department for International Development)

So we all piled into the meeting room at Dfid taking a pace around the huge rectangular table. We were greeted by John Hudson, Senior Forestry Adviser, Dr Amy Sullivan from the Climate and Environment Group and a representative from the Foreign Office. Anita started off by telling them all about what was happening in Orellana to her people and to the region, we were slightly taken aback (but not completely put off) when we were told that a plea for bio-diversity and indigenous people was 10 years too late, that what they were now interested in was Climate Change. Anita told them about how important these issues were to climate change but that also her people and the bio-diversity of the region had to be a priority, she was not prepared to sell them on the market.

We came to what we wanted which was for them to respond to the Ecuadorian government’s proposal officially with initial support but with the improvements laid out on our campaign page.

They said that they were unable to response as they do not believe they have been officially invited by the Ecuadorian government to participate… so our first mission on hearing such news was make sure the Ambassador be invited to present the proposal…

Anita arrives in London...

...7.30am we are waiting nervously at the airport waiting for Anita, did she make it through security okay? Perhaps she got lost coming through baggage reclaim? Maybe she didn't make the plane where she had to change in Amsterdam? Finally we see her and she rushes towards us, a look of relief on her face. She tells us how she had forgotten to ask us for the address of where she was staying whilst in London and just kept repeating to security that she was staying with Gines Haro - they were not very impressed. Finally she whipped out a copy of the NI and showed them her picture and told them she was a mayor from the Amazon and had come to ask for help from the government to protect her people. "They all looked so suprised!" she laughed.

We bundle her into taxi and rush off to our first appointment, we are relieved to see that despite the 16 hours journey and complete culture shock, Anita is perky and ready for an interview with the Telegraph.