The ITT initiative faces the end off its term?

The Government still does not give signs on the continuation of the Yasuní-ITT initiative, since even though it has insisted in the objective of the project which is  ‘Plan A’, that aims to leave underground the 920 million barrels of oil of Ishpingo, Tambococha and Tiputini fields, it has established a new deadline which will be fulfilled at the end of this month, in order to assess the project.

With the extension set on Monday, the amount of postponements is 11, since the plan was launched in June of 2007, which seeks a  compensation of $ 3.600 million for the country in exchange of leaving the crude oil unexploited  to preserve the Yasuni reserve.

Ivonne Baki, negotiating leader of the Yasuni-ITT initiative, said on Monday that a Commission has been formed, but didn’t mention the names of the participants, to reformulate the project scheme, in order to achieve better results in terms of fundraising.

However, according to the Ecuadorian Coordinator of Organizations for the Defense of Nature and the Environment, Natalia Greene, the fundraising objective will not be reached while there isn’t a clear signal confirming that the oil will not be exploited. “None of you would put your money in a bank which is about to close in a month”, said Greene.

For his part, the President of the Ecuarunari, Carlos Perez Guartamel, said that if the decision to exploit crude oil has not  been taken yet, is because of the political situation and the case of Snowden.

So far, several environmental groups have shown their dissatisfaction by the indecisiveness of the Government, and because of the risk posed by exploiting this biodiversity-rich National Park, which was declared in 1989 as a reserve for the programme Man and the Biosphere by UNESCO.