The Government will reimburse Yasuni taxpayers exceeding $ 50,000

According to certain clauses established in the two trusts that received the collections, supposedly derived for the non-exploitation ofYasuni-ITT, the quantities “below the deminimis threshold” of donations, won’t receive the Yasuní Guarantee Certificate (CGY for it Spanish acronym), which is the only document that guarantees the repayment of their money.

This means that all those countries that donated money to the Yasuni-itt initiative could demand its reinbursement, but only those who had given more than $ 50,0000.

The Ecuadorian government created an international and a national trust. Both sums the amount of $13.3 million. According to President Rafael Correa, contributions represented 0.37% of the money that was expected to be raised ($ 3,600 million in 20 years). Most of the money is in the international trust, which is administered by the United Nations Program for Development (UNDP).

Tarcisio Granizo, former asistent secretary of Policy and Planning of the Ministry of Heritage, said deposits below $ 50,000 will not be returned, but will be  “liquidated”, although did not specify how.

For his part, the spokesman of the Ministry of Cooperation, German Sebastian Lesch said that Correa has “exclusive responsibility of the failure of the environmental project Yasuni-ITT”, and said it was not true that the world has “failed” to Ecuador. Lesch said that Germany review the validity of the forest protection agreement with Ecuador.

Germany, last October, committed EUR 34.5 million for environmental preservation of this natural reserve.