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In a unique environmental scheme, Ecuador's government is asking developed nations to pay $350 million for them NOT to drill for oil in a major field in the heart of the Amazon. The sum represents about half of the estimated revenue that Ecuador would receive from drilling in the Yasuni National Park, a UNESCO-designated biosphere reserve that may contain up to a billion barrels of crude. Since Ecuador proposed the scheme last spring, politicians from Germany, Norway, Italy, Spain, and the EU have expressed interest, according to Ecuador's minister of energy. President Rafael Correa (pictured at left) had this to say:
Ecuador doesn't ask for charity [...] but does ask that the international community share in the sacrifice and compensates us with at least half of what our country would receive, in recognition of the environmental benefits that would be generated by keeping this oil underground."
Local residents are understandably skeptical that the government will be able to resist black gold's temptation for long. And despite their proven penchant for paying people not to do things, it seems unlikely that European governments would be willing to pay to keep the oil in the ground year after year.
Meanwhile, U.S. oil firm Chevron remains embroiled in a 14-year-old lawsuit from 30,000 indigenous Ecuadorians who claim the company poisoned their region by dumping toxic waste water. The controversial case is a major factor in many Ecuadorians' opposition to further drilling:
What happened here we can't let happen anywhere else, least of all Yasuni," said the plaintiffs' lawyer, Pablo Fajardo.
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