YASUNI ITT: The End of the Green Dream in Ecuador?

dublin | environment | event notice Wednesday November 13, 2013 13:13 by Latin American Solidarity Centre (LASC) events at lasc dot ie 5, Merrion Row, Dublin 2 01-6760435

LASC invites you to a talk, chaired by Chris O’Connell, LASC Committee Member, on the cancellation of the “Yasuni ITT Initiative”

When: Thursday 21st November, 6.30pm

Where: LASC, 5 Merrion Row, Dublin 2

Fifth appointament with the Night Talks on Latin America

When announced in 2007, the Yasuni ITT Initiative was hailed as a triumph for the environmental movement, provided newly elected President Rafael Correa with global attention and credibility, and was thought by some to represent the beginning of a new and alternative mode of global economics. The scheme appeared disarmingly simple: in return for donations of around half the value of the crude oil thought to be under the surface of this incredibly bio-diverse region, Ecuador would refrain from drilling, thereby protecting the park for all of humanity.

But after years of complex negotiations, internal squabbling, and broken promises – not to mention extremely low levels of donations – the hopes and dreams of many (along perhaps with Correa’s left-wing credentials) lie in tatters. In August of this year Correa announced his intention to cancel the scheme and move to drill for oil in Yasuni – a proposal this month approved by the Ecuadorian Congress.

“The world has failed us,” Correa has claimed; others, however, would lay the failure of the scheme at the president’s door. What were the factors that contributed to its collapse, and are there any lessons to be learned for the future of “post-oil development” initiatives?