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

Save Yasuní:sign the online petition

Simple but effective - stand up against the exploitation of the ITT.

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Action Alert: Write to your MP

If you live in the UK, your MP can put vital pressure on the UK government to act. You can ask them to sign an Early Day Motion (a parliamentary petition) supporting our campaign and to write to both Douglas Alexander MP, Secretary of State for International Development and Ed Miliband MP, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change.

If you live in any other country, please writte to your representatives.

Please email them soon. There are just weeks left now before the Ecuadorian government's proposal to save the park expires.

Click here to take action

Yasuni needs you¡

New Internationalist Yasuni Green Gold October Update

A decent proposal

The proposal set out by President Rafael Correa of Ecuador in May last year to preserve the Yasuní was a bold one, with inspiring principles behind it. For the first time a national government had sought international financial support to keep its oil underground: it had the potential to be revolutionary. If successful, it could provide a model for other developing nations across the world to save their own environmental and cultural treasures without having to sacrifice economic development.

However, there were also problems with Correa's proposal to save this pristine patch of Amazon. It did not clearly guarantee the preservation of the Yasuní or respect the human rights of the people of the region, and excluded them from participating in the decisions that would drastically affect their lives. It set a time limit for financial pledges and left open the possibility that, even if funds were successfully raised from the international community, they could be repaid by the Ecuadorian Government and the half-a-billion barrels of oil under the Yasuní exploited after all.

Since the proposal was made there have been some positive advances. such as the Progressive environmental and human rights articles proposed for the country’s new Constitution. Two extensions have been made to the initial deadline for international support. But,the weaknesses in the proposal have still not been addressed. Contradictory proposals and policies have emerged, such as the granting of a licence to drill in another part of the Yasuní, and the promotion of the 'Manta-Manaus corridor' – a plan to convert the River Napo into a motorway for ships trading between Brazil and China.

On a local level, many things have not changed. Huge oil spills continue, while companies such as Repsol YPF refuse to take responsibility. Inside the Yasuní, local communities, such as the Dayuma, continue to be repressed and those speaking out against the multinational companies are arrested. The revolutionary aspects of the proposal are getting lost - and it is shifting more and more into line with current free-market ideas, like carbon trading and ‘debt-for-nature-swaps’ - schemes that have already proven ineffective and immoral.

To get this proposal right, we need to get the principles right. The Yasuní Green Gold Campaign believes that the biosphere reserve is unique and that human life has no price. Paying for the Yasuní to remain unexploited undermines the human rights of those who live within the zone, as well as other national and international environmental laws that supposedly protect the park already. Certainly, Ecuador should be given financial help to support the development of alternative economic activities, helping the country preserve its forests and escape oil dependency. This is not charity; it is necessary for the whole world in order to prevent climate change. Certainly, the Yasuní should be protected because of its unique biological, ecological and cultural importance. But these are separate issues. It is wrong to use the preservation of the Yasuní and the lives of people as bargaining chips, attempting to put a price on things which are priceless.

Yasuní Green Gold wants to encourage and support Ecuador's Government to stay true to developing a bold proposal that does not sell off the Yasuní or its people for carbon credits or use them to cancel the national debt. We want them to remain committed to preserving the Yasuní and protecting its inhabitants, with no deadlines and no conditions. By creating an ‘untouchable zone’ and signing up to human rights laws, that is what they have already said they would do.

This is hard work for a country so dependent on oil, and it is the responsibility of the international community to support them in making the transition to a sustainable low-carbon economy, especially because of the importance of such a move in preventing global climate change. Local and indigenous people must be actively involved in the development of such projects in the Yasuní region if they are to be successful. If all this were to happen, then the rescue of Yasuní could go down in history as a revolutionary step along the path to climate justice.

Yasuni Green Gold

Also published on www.newint.org