After historic oil vote, little progress in Ecuador's Amazon

Scant progress halting drilling despite key vote

It will take years to end oil production in the Yasuni rainforest

Indigenous people excluded by government commission

By Anastasia Moloney

In the Amazon, on August 20, 2023, almost 60% of the population voted to keep crude oil in the ground.

Environmentalists and Indigenous Communities hailed the referendum as a historic victory for protecting one of the most biodiverse areas of the planet and a rare instance of the shift away from fossil fuel based economies.

The Amazon rainforest is vital in slowing climate change because it absorbs huge amounts of carbon dioxide.

The state oil company, Petroecuador was asked to shut down operations and dismantle the Yasuni "43-ITT" oil block, in an "orderly and progressive manner", and then restore it.

The Ecuadorian Constitutional Court ruled that Petroecuador has one year to remove the infrastructure from the block.

Indigenous leaders say that despite the government's many promises to take action, little has been achieved.

It's very alarming. Where is the commitment of the government? The machinery remains in place. Nemonte Nenquimo is a leader among the Waorani indigenous people, who have ancestral lands in the Yasuni forest.

According to a government statement dated August 20, the government has taken pains to demonstrate that it is intensifying its efforts to stop all oil activities in the zone. It also stated "its commitment to honor the (referendum decision) remains firm."

The Energy Ministry announced that it closed one of 247 wells within the block this week as part of an overall phase-out program expected to last around five and a half years.

According to Fernando Santos, Ecuador's Minister of Energy, dismantling operations will cost approximately $600 million.

The government has made a mockery out of the public vote by claiming that the process was complex and expensive and would now take three to five more years, said Fernando Munoz. Yasunidos is an Ecuadorian environment group which started pushing for a referendum over a decade ago.

He said: "We know that shutting down the oil production and stopping it overnight is not possible, but there is no schedule for a gradual, orderly shutdown."

According to the government, all wells will be offline by December 2029. However, removing the entire infrastructure from the block may take up until August 2030.

SECURITY CRISIS

Ecuador produces 500,000 barrels a day of crude oil, and the revenue from this is vital for its stretched government. It accounts for nearly 3% in gross domestic product.

The urgent security issues facing President Daniel Noboa could hinder plans to shut down oil production. In January, he declared that Ecuador was at war against criminal gangs.

Noboa also floated the notion of delaying the closure. He cited the need to finance his crackdown on drug fueled gang violence.

Mitch Anderson is the co-founder and president of Amazon Frontlines.

Experts from the United Nations have also called for immediate action in response to the referendum results, and urged the Ecuadorian Government to "urgently implement" the will of its people.

In a statement released on August 20, a group U.N. experts stated that "Ecuador must prioritise the protection of the climate, environment and Indigenous Peoples which depend on them and move away from an economy based on the depletion of natural resources and the extraction fossil fuels."

Healthy Rainforest

The Amazon rainforest, the largest tropical forest in the world, is essential to curbing climate change.

Scientists claim that climate change, fires and deforestation are all contributing to push the Amazon Forest to a tipping point which threatens to irreparably alter it.

Since decades, indigenous groups have been fighting to keep oil companies away from their homes to protect the local environment and several communities that live in voluntary exile.

They claim that Indigenous communities are not benefiting from oil, and that the building of roads and oil rigs have led to environmental damage and deforestation.

"Yasuni has a great deal of biodiversity." Ene Nenquimo is vice-president of Waorani Nation of Ecuador. She is one of many Indigenous organizations demanding action.

The government created a commission in May to supervise the closure. This panel included Petroecuador but Indigenous people did not have a seat.

Ene Nenquimo stated, "As landowners, the government should question us Waorani about what happens on our lands."

Ecuador's economy is largely dependent on crude oil exports.

Petroecuador said that ending exploration in Yasuni could cost Ecuador $13.8 billion (USD) over the next two decades, and would cut 12% from its 480,000 barrels of oil per day production.

Munoz, an academic, said that the losses from oil revenues could be offset in part by comprehensive tax reform "based on the principal that those who earn more pay more tax".

He added that "there should be a public debate on the need for a just transition, and how to maintain an economy without oil when reserves run out."

Indigenous organizations are considering taking this issue to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in order to ensure that the government follows the result of the referendum.

(source: Reuters)