Ecuador Approves Oil Drilling in One of the Most Biodiverse Regions on the Planet

1 June 2014

 - In 2007, Ecuador, a country already heavily invested in oil development, surprised the world by announcing the Yasuní ITT Initiative which aimed to indefinitely refrain from exploiting the oil reserves contained within one of the most biologically diverse regions of the Yasuní National Park, situated in the upper Ecuadorian Amazon.

Rather than issuing drilling permits to increase economic development by selling off the natural resources of this sacred and untouched area, the Ecuadorian government planned to petition the world to donate funds for the protection of this land. A bold and unique program that advertised the Yasuní National Park as a world treasure that should not be touched by industrial development. A plan, Ecuador said, that was in the best interest of all the people of the earth.