Ecuador invites world to save its forest
President Rafael Correa launches a proposal Tuesday for the international community to compensate Ecuador if the country prohibits oil drilling within its rain forest.
from the June 5, 2007 edition
Page 3 of 3
How environmentalists see it
The reaction of international environmental organizations ranges from enthusiastic to skeptical.
Luis Suarez, executive director of Conservation International's office in Ecuador, calls the proposal "innovative and interesting," particularly because it is spearheaded by the president and the minister for energy, rather than by the environmental community.
Regional Director of the World Conservation Union, Robert Hofstede, describes the proposal as "interesting, and not unfeasible, but very difficult" due to the challenge of placing a dollar value on the environmental, cultural, and social value of the Yasuni.
Similar concepts have been floated before but not realized, says Michael Dorsey of the Sierra Club. Papua New Guinea, for instance, has led an 11-country team in championing the idea of awarding carbon-trading credits in exchange for the preservation of rain forests at UN Climate Change conferences. Under the arrangement, developing countries with rich forests that offset carbon emissions would earn credits for maintaining those forests. Those credits are called Certified Emissions Reductions (CERs) and can be bought on international carbon-trading markets by developed countries that are exceeding their carbon emission targets as set forth in the Kyoto Protocol. But, so far, no credits have been granted for preserving forests.
"In general, these ideas are positively received," says Dorsey. "But there is not much of a movement [to support them] in the mainstream." Dorsey attributes the hesitance to the power of corporate interests.
No environmental groups have announced a compensation plan yet, but this may change after receiving official contact and further details about the proposal following Tuesday's launch.
"The priority option would be to keep the oil of the ITT underground," says Correa. Meanwhile, he is holding talks with Petroecuador about the bidding process to drill.
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