There has been lots of talk recently on Twitter about oil exploitation in Block 31 of Yasuni National Park and how this contravenes the promises made by the Yasuni ITT Initiative. Fortunately, or unfortunately, this doesn’t seem to be the case.
Fortunately, because it means that Yasuni ITT is still going ahead successfully. Unfortunately, it means that other parts of the Yasuni National Park are open to exploitation by oil companies.
The ITT in Yasuni ITT refers to a region (Ishpingo Tambococha Tiputini) of the Yasuni National Park. Therefore it is only a part of the park which is being reserved from exploitation, not all of it.
Block 31 is an area adjacent to the ITT region. It is obviously very disappointing to think that not all of Yasuni is protected and to many of us, contradictory, but in the current climate the fact that the Yasuni ITT Initiative exists at all is a huge positive. Its survival alone is not yet a given and that would still be the priority of Yasuniforever. If we could extend the protection to Block 31 and the rest of the Yasuni National Park, that would indeed be a victory for common sense.
A neat summary of Block 31 in relation to Yasuni ITT is included in a very informative article by Matt Finer and Pamela Martin called The “Dark Side” of the Yasuní-ITT Initiative. This article gives a very clear account of the initiative up to June 2010. It would be great if there was an update somewhere. The section on Block 31 reads as follows:
The oil concession immediately adjacent (to the west) of the ITT zone is known as Block 31. The extraordinary rainforest boasted by Ecuador in support of the ITT Initiative is the same extraordinary rainforest in Block 31. But Ecuador is quickly moving towards development of the oil in Block 31, even as they vigorously promote the wonders of the Yasuní-ITT Initiative.
In other words, to the disbelief of many international observers, Ecuador is treating them as two totally different beasts instead of one connected masterpiece. Note to Quito: This bizarre disconnect needs to change.
More information about Block 31 is available on the following sites:
Peru: The Exploitation Of Block 31 Threat To The Initiative Of Non-Exploitation Of Yasuni Oil
Ecuador To Begin Oil Production In Yasuni Park Region Next Year
A post from this blog headed US $100million reached. That was the easy part! has been quoted in an article written Gina-Marie Cheeseman. The article Donations Stop Oil Drilling In a National Park in Ecuador was initially published on the care2 website and subsequently on Refinery News. Although we are pleased to be quoted, the article seems to believe that Yasuniforever is critical of the Yasuni ITT initiative. Quite the opposite, this website was set-up to raise awareness of the initiative and facilitate its success. In a political environment which appears very short of new ideas, the Yasuni ITT initiative is innovative and groundbreaking. We think our support of this initiative should be obvious from our name.
What Yasuniforever finds disappointing is that it proved so difficult to raise a relatively small amount of money. As the article points out, the US$100 million was pretty much cobbled together, with very little money coming from the EU and nothing from the US, Canada or China. What is also disappointing is that this initiative has received very little publicity, which is another reason that this blog was created. When we consider that scientists have stated that the world is headed for irreversible climate change in five years Yasuniforever thinks that it is disgusting that it should be so difficult to raise what is actually a very small part of the total sum needed. Climate Change is so important, it seems logical that an initiative of this sort should make headlines throughout the world and that Ecuador would be inundated with donations, but so far, it would be possible for this initiative to live and die with most people having no idea it had even existed. Yasuniforever is critical of the world’s response to the initiative, not the initiative itself.
Yasuniforever’s twitter feed has been mentioned by The Santiago Realpe Daily. Find out more here.
In order for the Yasuni ITT initiative to proceed, it was stated that US$100 million would need to be donated by 30 December 2011. Realistically, yasuniforever, thought that this amount should have been relatively easy to achieve. There must be 100 million people in the world passionate enough to be able to donate 1 dollar to this cause. All that was needed was the will to inform and mobilise them. But how to do that?
Unfortunately, yasuniforever knows only that it has raised between $100 and $200 dollars. This is due to really not having the time to devote to the cause. Even to get this far has required a steep learning curve since first reading an article about Yasuni in August 2011.
Yasuniforever has also contacted the administrators of the fund who have been very helpful. Despite this, it has been difficult to track how much has been donated by other sources. The information on the fund site indicates only that approximately US$2 million dollars has been received. However, we were told that over U$53 million was pledge on 23 September.
More recently, publicity around donations from MUJI and the Government of Georgia have shown that money is still being received, but it is unclear when this gets displayed on the fund page.
Press articles here and here say that the $US 100 million was reached earlier this month. Yasuniforever will be watching and will update when we know if the first target was reached or not and what happens next.
Thanks to all those that have encouraged and supported us.
This short film gives a brief explanation of the story behind and the details of the Yasuni ITT initiative.
In 2007, President Correa of Ecuador issued a historic proposal, that was a new way of approaching and valuing our natural resources. About 4 years later, the make or break date for the success or demise of that proposal is approaching and the coverage in the media is embarrassingly sparse.
The Yasuni ITT initiative is a new way of thinking about the world and its resources which could make history. It could change the future of the human race and it’s attitude to the world, its home, but hardly anyone seems to have heard about it.
In simple terms, Ecuador wants to leave the oil it has discovered in the Yasuni ITT reserve where it is and transform its energy generation to renewable sources. Consequently, benefiting its human and animal population in innumerable ways. To do this, it wants to raise US$3.6 billion by 2013. More details will be added later or can be found here: http://mdtf.undp.org/yasuni.
For this proposal to go ahead, Ecuador created a fund managed by the UN. To be considered viable they need to raise US$100 million by 30 December 2011. Apart from a few random articles there seems to be little in the print press about this initiative and less on TV. Why? The proposal is historic and life changing.
This blog and the @yasuniforever twitter account think that this is something that needs to be heard and the money needs to be found. As a species, we have very little time to secure out future and the Yasuni ITT initiative is a positive and significant step in the right direction.
yasuniforever 