Oil and Ecocide Risk in Ecuador’s Amazon

Carlos LarreaUniversidad Andina Simón Bolívar

Ecuador

Ecuador’s culture and biodiversity

Ecuador is one of the 13 megadiverse countries in the World, and it is also endowed by a significant cultural diversity, with 13 different spoken languages, mostly in the Amazon region.

Oil, ecocide and risk in Ecuador Since 1972, oil extraction in Ecuador’s Amazon

rainforest generated significant detrimental effects on biodiversity, human well-being of indigenous peoples and global provision of environmental benefits on climate and water . Chevron was the main responsible for ecocide, (EEE Amendments 4 and 5).

Oil extraction may irreversibly produce a serious destruction in the Yasuni National Park, the most biodiverse hotspot in the Western Hemisphere and home of the 2 only isolated indigenous groups in Ecuador. The precautionary principle must be applied (EEE Amendment 7).

As a precautionary policy, oil must be kept underground in the Yasuni National Park.

The Amazon: the Largest Remaining Rainforest in the Planet

The Yasuní National Park Endowment

The most diverse area in the Western Hemisphere. One hectare in the park contains as many tree species

as the United States and Canada together. 150 species of amphibians, 121 of reptiles, 593 of

birds, about 200 of mammals, 500 of fish and 4.000 of plants have been identified in the Yasuni Park.

It was a biodiversity refuge during the Pleistocene period, when most of the Amazon rainforest became grasslands due to glaciations.

Home of two voluntarily isolated and not contacted indigenous cultures: the Tagaeri and the Taromenane.

Biodiversity of the Yasuni Park

Yasuni´s Biodiversity Overlap Map

Bass M, Finer M, Jenkins C, et al.(2010), Global Conservation Significance of Ecuador’s Yasuní National Park. PloS ONE, Volume 5, Issue 1, January 2010.

Oil and Deforestation in Ecuador

Haga clic en el icono para agregar un gráfico

Oil and environment in Ecuador’s Amazon

For many years, indigenous people from a formerly pristine region of the Amazon rainforest in Ecuador have been trying to get relief from an American company, Texaco (which later merged with Chevron), for what has been described as the largest oil-related environmental catastrophe ever.

Bob Herbert, New York Times, June 4, 2010

The ITT-Yasuní Dilemma

Block 31 Road inside Yasuni, Petroamazonas, 2013

National Geographic, Dic 26, 2012

University of Padova, 2014 (Geoyasuni.org)

Isolated Indigenous Peoples in Yasuni Are in the Blink of Extinction

Oil exploitation inside the Park is expanding: Blocks 16, 31 and ITT.

Last year, a group of about 14 Taromenane was killed.

The habitat for semi nomadic hunting and gathering is vanishing.

No effective protection policy exists.

Keeping Fossil Fuel Reserves Underground

Kyoto mitigation failed, and new innovative tools are needed.

If all fossil fuel reserves are burnt this century, global warming will be catastrophic.

To keep global warming on safe limits (2º C), about two thirds of world reserves must remain unexploited.

Kyoto Mechanisms did not Reduce Emissions: Alternative Options are Necessary

Global Warming Limit 2°C ↔ 50% Emission Reduction at 2050

Fuente: Meinshausen et al (2009), Greenhouse emission targets for limiting global warming to 2°C, Nature, 458, abril.

Source: McGlade, C. and Ekins P. (2015) “The Geographic Distribution of fossil fuels unused when limiting Global Warming to 2 ºC” . Nature, January 8, 2015, Vol. 517, Issue 7533.