In 2007 Rafael Correa, the president of Ecuador, had a difficult choice to make. One of the most biodiverse areas of the planet was currently protected as an Ecuadorian national park (Yasuni), but the country was feeling economic pressure to destroy it in order to get at the 846 million barrels of oil that lay below. The oil there was valued at $7.2 billion USD. Sr. Correa proposed a compromise:
| Pristine Yasuni National Forest |
If the rest of the world donated half the value of the oil, then the rainforest would remain protected.
The United Nations Development Programme helped Ecuador to establish and administer a trust fund to manage the funds it received. Celebrities (Al Gore, Leonardo DiCaprio) and a host of businesses and national governments stepped up to the challenge. According to The Guardian, $116 million was donated by the December 30 cut-off date. For now, the park's most valuable sectors will remain free from oil exploitation.
| Drilling for Oil in the Rainforest |
"The notion that everyone has a personal and financial interest in saving the rainforest (and other ecosystems) is a relatively novel one, so it’s not surprising that the world hasn’t poured even more money into Ecuador’s coffers. This experiment has made clear, though, that the decision not to drill for oil does have financial value—over the longer term, that value could outstrip the profits of exploiting resources.
[As] Reuters’ Felix Salmon...puts it, “Oilfields, eventually, run out of oil. But untapped oilfields never do.” As long as the world depends on oil, fears climate change, and values biodiversity, Ecuador can essentially charge the world rent on benefits derived from the rainforest."
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