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

"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.

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

Waorani women defend Yasuni

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

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

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

Movimientos

MOVIMIENTOS AT THE SALMON AND COMPASS
"Música Mestiza. Documentary films. Latin Culture"

Thursday 2th October

Ecuador and Yasuni Green Gold special with documentary films and speakers

_
Films upstairs from 7pm
+ Speakers from Yasuni Green Gold and book presentation.

_
Music Downstairs

All the freshest old school and contemporary dancefloor Latin beats with Movimientos DJs Cal Jader, Pablo N, Clem George, live percussion & special guests

7pm-2am
Entry: Donations before 9pm / £3 after
Salmon and Compass
58 Penton Street (Corner of Chapel Market), N1 9PZ (Angel tube/Northern Line)

An interesting video post in the BBC website (in spanish /en español)

I link you a video (in spanihs) post in the BBC that i found interesting. Hope this help you to know more about the Yasuni and the problems/complexity down there

Click Here to see the video


And remember, Yasuni is Green Gold!

Latest on the Yasuní campaign.

Latest on the Yasuní campaign
Submitted by Jess Worth on August 19, 2008 - 2:53pm.
New Internationalist.

Since we published the 'Viva Yasuní: Life vs Big Oil' magazine two
months ago, the NI has done something we haven't done for a very long
time. We have thrown ourselves head-first into running a campaign.

It crept up on us gradually: first Georgie and Ginés from Yasuní Green Gold approached us with the stunning photos which you will soon
be able to see in our Yasuní Green Gold book. Then the editors
dropped everything to produce in (almost) record time a special
magazine about the people of Yasuní and the horrible situation
they find themselves in: their homes and livelihoods perched atop a
billion barrels of oil, with the oil companies clamouring to start
drilling.

Having researched the situation, and discovered such beauty in this pristine
patch of Amazon rainforest, and such injustice in the way it is about
to be destroyed, we felt we couldn't leave it there. The people of
Yasuní have asked the international community for our help.
It's our responsibility to give it.

So now the NI office has been transformed into the Yasuní Green
Gold international campaign headquarters (it's not as grand as it
sounds!) Ginés and Georgie have moved to Oxford to work with
us for a while, and we are busily organising our grand launch event
in London on 6th October. We are working out a strategy for putting pressure on the wavering Ecuadorian Government to honour their initial pledge to find
a way of saving Yasuní from an oily fate – and pondering how
on earth to persuade the British Government to do the right thing for
once. We are ringing up NGOs and selected bigwigs to persuade them to
get involved in the campaign, and Ginés and Georgie are
putting together their whizzy new website, organizing volunteers
and co-ordinating actions in Spain and elsewhere.

We ran a workshop a couple of weeks ago at the Camp for Climate Action which was attended by Ecuadorian and Brazilian activists amongst others. At that point I realised what a buzz there is about this campaign - it's really captured peoples' imagination. Hell, the band playing that night even stopped their set to encourage everyone in the audience to get involved in saving Yasuní! We're increasingly getting the feeling this could get huge...

We are thrilled that Anita Rivas, the inspirational mayor of Orellana in
the Yasuní region who so kindly allowed us to use the photos
for the book will be coming over to speak at the launch, and hope we
can generate enough publicity for her voice to be heard by the
people who need to hear it.

We will keep you updated on the progress of the campaign. If
you want to be sent latest news and campaign actions as they occur,
please sign up to the NI email list.

In the meantime, if you haven't already donated a book, please do.

Viva Yasuní!