Beneath Yasuni - a national park in Ecuador's part of the Amazon jungle - are the country's largest oil reserves. The Ishpingo, Tambococha and Tiputini oil fields are referred to as 43-ITT block for short.

In 2007 Ecuador's then-president Rafael Correa appealed to the international community to help raise US$3.6 billion. The funds were needed to ensure that the indigent country could afford to keep these oil deposits in the ground.

The amount quoted by Correa was calculated as half of the revenue Equador officials expected to realise from exploiting the Yasun reserves. When only $13 million had been raised over six years, President Correa ruled: "The world has failed us". The extraction of the deposits began in 2016.

For the past 10 years, the Yasunidos - a civil society initiative defending not only the ecologically invaluable forests, but also the indigenous peoples living in the area - have been fighting to protect the national park areas. The Tagaeri and Taromenane tribes are the last communities in Ecuador to live in isolation from civilisation by choice.

The current Ecuadorian authorities were against the cessation of mining operations in 43-ITT block for economic reasons. Despite this, the Yasunidos managed to win a referendum on the issue. On 20 August 2023, the people of Ecuador voted either "yes" or "no" to the question of whether the country should stop mining the deposits in the Yasuni area.

Among others, Fernando Santos Alvite, Ecuador’s mining and energy minister, lobbied against. "You can’t live off air, birds and reptiles. It is a very serious blow to the Ecuadorian economy if the ‘yes’ vote wins," - he warned.

Voters were aware, however, that it is impossible to breathe or eat oil and money, with 59% of them in favour of leaving the deposits in the ground at 43-ITT block, an unprecedented victory for long-term and community thinking over current profits. State-owned oil company Petroecuador has now one year to shut down work in the area affected by the referendum.

Source: Reuters, dialogochino.net