Source: Prensa Latina.
4 August 2010
Ecuador is promoting an audacious program to help protect the environment and raise awareness among other nations to do the same. In this effort, the Ecuadorian government has joined with the United Nations Development Program and offered to renounce oil exploitation in an area where some 846 million barrels of reserve are known to exist.
According to an official note, this move aims to prevent the emission of 407 million tons of carbon into the atmosphere, even though the nation could earn some US $7 billion from that oil, which has never been extracted. The Ishpingo, Tambococha, and Tiputini oilfields are located in the Yasuni-ITT National Park in the Ecuadorian Amazon, home to an indigenous population. As international compensation, Ecuador is asking for nations, organizations, and people interested in this plan to preserve the environment to give economic support by contributing to a fund that will be managed by the UNDP.
