Yasuni National Park, National park in Orellana Province, Ecuador.

Yasuni National Park is a protected area in Orellana Province, Ecuador, located between the Napo and Curaray rivers. Dense rainforest covers the territory, crossed by countless streams, smaller rivers, and still lagoons that extend toward the Amazon basin.

Ecuador declared the area a national park in 1979 to protect its biodiversity and indigenous territories. A decade later, UNESCO granted it Biosphere Reserve status and included the adjacent Waorani reserve within the designation.

The park overlaps the territory of the Huaorani, who hold unrestricted use rights and live mainly by hunting, gathering and small traditional plots, with settlements near the Vía Maxus oil road. At least two Huaorani groups, the Tagaeri and Taromenane, keep themselves in voluntary isolation inside the park. Kichwa and Shuar communities also live on its edges.

Access is mainly by boat on the Napo and Curaray rivers; the Vía Maxus oil road runs near some Huaorani settlements inside the park. Average elevation is 190 to 400 m, with ridges 25 to 70 m high. Rain falls year-round, about 3200 to 3400 mm annually, with humidity of 80 to 94%.

Scientists have counted more than 100,000 insect species on a single hectare, one of the highest concentrations on Earth. The same small area can hold up to 650 tree species, more than in all of North America combined.