The Yasuní­-ITT Initiative: a dark lesson about ethics and development

Abstract

The Yasuní - ITT Initiative represented an innovative and cutting-edge proposal of the Ecuadorian State. It aimed to position a priority change in the prevailing development model, based on the preservation of fundamental environmental goods and services for life Earth, and to the co-responsibility of the State in this objective globally. This initiative sought the support of the international community on the decision of the State to not exploit the “Ishpingo - Tiputini - Tambococha” (ITT) oil field, located in the northeast of the Yasuní National Park in the Ecuadorian Amazon, where there are proven reserves of crude oil of at least 920 million barrels. These measures represented for the Ecuadorian economy, to renounce to a potential income of 7,000 million dollars while avoiding the emission into the atmosphere of approximately 407 million tons of CO2. It was the focal point of the President of Ecuador’s speech when he formally presented the initiative to the United Nations General Assembly on September 24, 2007. An outstanding element that, likewise, was intended to be guaranteed with the development of this initiative, was the protection of the rights of indigenous peoples in voluntary isolation, who live mainly within the Yasuní National Park known as the Tagaeri and Taromenane. The non-exploitation of the ITT Block would have strengthened the protection measures implemented by the Government of Ecuador, through the creation of an Intangible Zone that prohibits extractive activities within the perimeter considered an ancestral territory occupied by these peoples. Until August 15, 2013, when President Rafael Correa himself issued the Executive Decree No. 074 that ordained the termination of the escrow created to finance the Yasuní-ITT Initiative, the aim of the initiative had meant an emblem of the country’s foreign policy. The support that it had achieved by an increasing number of sectors and social movements at the national level, as well as various states, international organizations, and personalities worldwide, finally did not materialize with the expected economic contribution. According to the records of the initiative, towards the end of its validity, about thirteen and a half million dollars were collected, when the minimum amount of contribution required to leave the oil underground and operate the fund with which they would develop projects of conservation and sustainability, was of 100 million dollars until 2011, and of 3.6 billion dollars in 13 years. Beyond the readings and understandings generated as a result of its termination and the subsequent decision of the Ecuadorian Government to move forward with the plan to exploit Oil Blocks 31 and 43 within the Yasuní National Park, the impulse of the Yasuní-ITT Initiative transcended on the agendas of public policies at national and international levels. Thus, while internally, it led to an unprecedented debate in the population about the advantages and disadvantages of the relationship between extractive activities vs. nature conservation. At an external level, it influenced the exploration of new ways for governments to contribute to agreements on climate change. Its unfulfillment allowed once again the extraction of oil, which, as in the color of the latter, meant deep learning of an ethical dilemma that tears down the conscience of our civilization.

KEY WORDS: Intangible zone, conservation, national interest, indigenous people, renewable resources.

JEL CODE / CLASIFICACIÓN JEL: Q56, H23