Ecuador Voters Reject Oil Drilling in Biodiversity Hotspot in Amazon

Ecuadorian’s voted to stop oil drilling and exploration in Yasuní National Park, one of the most biodiverse parts of the planet that sits atop vast underground oil reserves.

Sunday’s historic vote is the culmination of years of climate activism in the country. With over 90 percent of the ballots counted as of Monday, some six in ten citizens rejected oil exploration in the park, according to the AP.

Yasuní National Park’s 2.5 million acres of rainforest sits in the northeastern corner of the Ecuadorian Amazon and is home to more than 610 species of birds, 139 species of amphibians and 121 species of reptiles. Just a single acre of the forest can contain more than 100 different species of tree. 

The park is also home to two Indigenous communities, the Tagaeri and Taromenane, who are thought to be among the last Indigenous groups living in isolation in the country. 

But Yasuní also covers one of the largest reserves of crude oil in a country that increasingly relies on exporting fossil fuels for economic growth. In 2007, then-president Rafael Correa urged wealthier countries to pay Ecuador to keep the oil in Yasuní underground. The proposal fell flat, and drilling began in 2016.

In June, Petroecuador, a state-run oil company, announced production in Yasuní’s wells surpassed 55,000 barrels a day, accounting for 12 percent of the county’s production. 

As a result of Sunday’s referendum, Petroecuador will have less than two years to wind down production in the area. Ceasing operations could cost Ecuador up to $16.5 billion over the next 20 years, the company said. 

But some economists say these losses are exaggerated, and fail to account for the benefits of preserving the area, Mongabay reports.

The vote comes amid political tumult in Ecuador. Earlier this month, presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio was killed weeks before the election. The election is now headed toward a run-off in October, as no candidate garnered enough votes to win outright.