Obstacles to Amazonian Conservation in Ecuador
The most biologically diverse place on earth is a portion of the Amazon rainforest known as Yasuni. Environmentalists have targeted the region for an innovative and internationally recognized conservation project, and the populist President Rafael Correa seems to be on board. However, Correa has many obligations to social movements and businesse alike under Ecuador’s constitutional referendum. Can Ecuador’s government juggle multiple budgetary obligations in order to conserve biodiversity in the Amazon, and at what point does a remarkable environmentalist proposal fall apart under the weight of intensive social and economic programs? The Yasuni stretches over approximately one million acres. Biologists studying the biodiversity of the region remark on the more than 300 species of trees than inhabit areas smaller than two football fields. More than 500 species of birds can be found, and 40% of the Amazon’s mammal species are protected within Yasuni’s bounds. The Ecuadorian government declared Yasuni a national park in 1979 and a wildlife sanctuary in 1989. Subsequent designations in 1999 and 2006 made Yasuni an “untouchable zone” where no type of extractive activity is allowed. However, the government, which has depended on oil revenues to repay foreign debts over the past 25 years, has largely ignored these designations, even following the 2003-2006 court case against Texaco for the “Chernobyl of the Amazon,” environmental damages caused by sloppy oil drilling and repeated oil spills. Further, a...
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