Government cancels the Yasuní ITT initiative

The waiting for the future of the Yasuní ITT initiative ended once the President of Ecuador, Rafael Correa, announced yesterday at a national broadcast transmitted by radio and television that the project was closed, since “the world failed to contribute to the project’ which had as aim to protect a section of the Amazon jungle and leave around 846 million barrels of oil  underground in exchange for financial compensation.

“With profound sadness, but with absolute responsibility with our people and history, I had to take one of the most difficult decisions of my Government … I signed the Executive Decree for the liquidation of the Yasuní-ITT trusts and thereby put an end to the initiative”, said Correa, who added that “the initiative was ahead of the times, and could not or would not be understood by the international community”

During his message to the people of Ecuador the President indicated that the Assembly requested “the Declaration of national interest for the exploitation of oil in the Yasuni, use that… will affect less than 1% of the Yasuni Park, which has more than one million hectares”. Then, through his twitter account,  he corrected the figure: one per thousand (instead of 1%).

Correa also told the Ecuadorian people that the exploitation of the reserves of the ITT would generate the sum of  $18. 292 million, and that they will be used “to overcome poverty, especially in the Amazon”, since from that capital, the  autonomous decentralized governments (GAD) of the Amazon would receive nearly $258 million by law 010, and $1.882 million for the 12% of the oil surplus..

Finally the President said that in the upcoming days  a communications campaign will be launched  to make people aware of the last generation techniques of extraction that will be used.