Yasuní-ITT Initiative, Environmental protection initiative in Yasuní National Park, Ecuador
The Yasuní-ITT Initiative was a proposal to leave approximately 900 million barrels of oil underground in a protected forest zone. The project sought international funding to prevent oil drilling in the Amazon region.
Ecuador's President Rafael Correa launched the project in 2007 and hoped for international support to fund forest protection. After years of negotiations, the initiative ended in 2013 when insufficient funding was secured.
The program aligned with Ecuador's constitutional recognition of nature rights and protected Indigenous Tagaeri and Taromenane communities living in voluntary isolation within the forest.
The project is known today mainly through historical documents and news reports, since the initiative is no longer active. Visitors can explore the Yasuní area to see the landscape that was intended to be protected.
A national referendum in 2023 resulted in a decision to halt oil extraction in the national park, reversing the 2013 decision. This vote reignited the debate over resource use and environmental protection in Ecuador.
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