Raquel Luna – The result of the popular referendum in Ecuador to keep fossil fuels in the ground in the Yasuní National Park in Ecuador is an historic decision: unique and unprecedented. Why is it relevant today? What are the developments and challenges facing the closure, dismantling, restoration and healing of Yasuní?
Faced with the dilemma of life or oil, the Ecuadorians chose life
On August 20, 2023, in a popular referendum, the Ecuadorian people voted (by 59%) to stop the extraction of crude oil (and the closure, dismantling, restoration and repair of damages) in the Yasuní National Park in order to keep their Amazonian rainforest alive.[1] The same referendum gave the Ecuadorian government and Petroecuador one year to implement the mandate, under the supervision of the Constitutional Court. This is a significant event.
First, because of the richness of this place. The Yasuní (part of the Amazon Basin and a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve since 1989), is said to have “the highest number of species on the planet”.[2] The magnitude of its biodiversity is what some scientists call “hyperdiversity” or “megadiversity”. It is also home to the nomadic Tagaeri and Taromemnae, some of the known indigenous people living in voluntary isolation in the Amazons. The safeguard of the Yasuní is urgent and relevant on a global scale, from an ecological, political and eco-social perspective, in the face of spiraling environmental and climate degradation.
Second, its wealth extends underground: it holds crude oil (presumably the second biggest oil reserve in Ecuador), particularly in the Ishpingo Tambococha Tiputini (ITT) field. This means that oil extraction is seen as an opportunity for economic growth and “development” by Ecuadorians, and as profit and energy by others. As a result, pressure to exploit the Yasuní as well as attempts to protect it are latent. Then-President Correa’s ITT-Yasuní initiative to protect the “megadiversity” attracted international attention but not enough international economic support. It lasted from 2007 until August 15, 2013, when it was canceled, paving the way for its exploitation. By 2014, Amazon Watch reported that 45% of the Yasuní Park was overlapped by oil concessions.[3] In January 2022, satellite images showed the relentless expansion of oil extraction activities in the rainforest (see image below).[4]
Roads and concessions were planned and built deeper near the “intangible zone”. Carlos Mazabanda, Ecuador field coordinator for Amazon Watch, acknowledged that the Ecuadorian Amazon had been carved up into oil blocks and that the aim was to reach the buffer zone in front of the “intangible zone” (zona intangible).
Third, the popular referendum garnered broad support inside and outside Ecuador for the safeguard of the Yasuní: from the involvement of scientists and international organizations, to a decade-long civil society campaign pushing for a popular referendum to achieve a binding commitment to safeguard the Yasuní, which succeeded. The grassroots initiative, led by Yasunídos (active since 2013), the CONAIE (the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador), and many allied organizations, created the political momentum of commitment, mobilization and participation that is still alive and active today. They demand accountability to the Constitutional Court, the Ecuadorian government and Petroecuador.
Fourth, the real challenge begins after the referendum. The Ecuadorian people have given their institutions a mandate, and the question is how to implement it under the current global and interconnected eco-social, political and epistemological constraints? This pioneering experience aims to “break the idea that it is impossible that already established oil companies can be removed”, according to Maristella Svampa. After all, it is unprecedented that “an oil company in the middle of the exploitation process has to withdraw”.
According to Esperanza Martinez, a member of Acción Ecológica, “the referendum marks a before and after in the history of ecologists and human rights, and of those struggling for another possible world. This experience is just the start of a long process of healing that can be an example for the world, as the knowledge that will be acquired will be needed in many places around the world. It will be demanded by the climate crisis.”[5]
A year of non-compliance, another year of struggle
One year later, the Ecuadorian government and Petroecuador have taken little action to begin the process of closing and dismantling block 43. Since the results of the referendum, Yasunídos and other organizations have sent about 10 documents to the Constitutional Court, informing and demanding action. Furthermore, according to Pedro Bermeo, legal coordinator of Yasunídos, documents from Petroecuador show the opening of at least 5 more wells in the ITT field since the referendum.
Petroecuador argues that the process to stop all oil extraction activities from ITT would take three to five years. If the demand for a five year extension is accepted, it would allow for the “natural decline” of many of the wells and it would go against the popular mandate to stop fossil fuel extraction. In addition, the national oil company warns of the risk of the country being sued by foreign investors.[6] In short, in 2024, oil production in the ITT field increased.
At the beginning of 2024, President Noboa suggested extending the deadline, citing the need to continue extraction activities. For nine months, Noboa’s action was reduced to not signing any new contracts. In May 2024, Noboa issued the Executive Decree 257 to create the Committee for the Execution of the Popular Will (CEPV) Yasuní – ITT. An interagency committee formed by five government institutions (4 ministries and the general manager of Petroecuador), without the participation of civil society directly involved since 2013. A committee without a plan, deadline or budget. According to Bermeo, the decree is just a smokescreen to pretend that the Ecuadorian government is taking action.
Fortunately, civil society remains mobilized: Yasunídos have submitted documents since September 2023 to the present day, reporting on the compliance with the sentence. The progressive and orderly reduction of exploitation has not happened. The work is far from over. Pedro Bermeo of Yasunídos declared that they are ready to go until the final consequences: if the Constitutional Court finds that Petroecuador and the Ecuadorian government failed to comply, the people responsible, from the president of Ecuador to the director of Petroecuador, may be removed from their positions. And Bermeo adds that they would also pursue criminal charges against them.
International organizations, such as the UN Special Rapporteurs, pressure the Ecuadorian institutions to respect the mandate. On August 20, 2024, Yasunídos invited civil society to join the Constitutional Court of Ecuador to present economic alternatives. More actions have taken place to mark the anniversary of the popular will, such as the first Yasuní summit by the Waorani, in the jungle town of Puyo. At the summit, they laid out their vision for implementing the resolution and a 100-day action plan with specific actions and demands. In response to the pressure, the government invited the Waorani to the inaugural meeting of the interagency committee. On August 28, 2024, the first day of the summit, the government announced the shut down of the first of 247 wells inside the ITT field. A symbolic gesture, according to Yasunídos, given that official documents stated that the well was registered as abandoned in June 2024.
Lessons from the frontlines of transition
Maristella Svampa[7], a renowned researcher, sociologist, activist and writer, shares two reflections on the lessons learned from what she calls the Yasuní experience[8]:
- Learnings in the horizons of transitions: The case of the Yasuní makes us think about “transitions at the local level and the eco-territorial transitions that have to do, above all, with processes of healing social identities and processes of healing of territories themselves that are involved in very destructive extractivist processes”. Instead of thinking of transitions in a multi-scalar way (linked to geopolitical processes and national dimensions with strong state intervention and public policies), the Yasuní is about repairing a polluted territory as well as dismantling the whole infrastructure that damages it. This requires audacity and imagination to be able to create or try to create new work activities to heal the territory. It requires a positive perspective, an opportunity for the emergence of new tasks and occupations for the transition. It also calls for an international reflection on “what form this task of reparation can take”, a task that will require technical knowledge and “the incorporation of communities in this task of healing the territory”.
- Learnings about the involvement of people to recreate their own social trajectories in the transition[9]: how to confront the economic insistence that one cannot live without depending on oil? What can the territory do that is no longer dependent on the world of oil? Svampa acknowledges that the world of oil “is also the route of trafficking, prostitution, gambling, and the route of disparities and great social inequalities”. The world of oil generates types of employment that are “closely linked to these types of ruptures in society”. Therefore, the challenge is: “How to recreate a healthy fabric in terms of individual and social identities, detached from the world of oil and linked to the recreation of these territories of life?” New occupations and identities need to be created, and Svampa affirms that “many will be linked to the task of decontamination and regeneration of the territories of life”. It involves new skills and tools that require a radical imagination, similar to that of science fiction as “the environment itself is undergoing such profound transformations that were inconceivable until recently”.
The challenges facing the Yasuní are far from small. This pioneering experience provides precedents and paths for action far beyond Ecuador.
| An example of explorations on the horizon of transitions: the economic problem
Ecuador is facing two years of economic slowdown. 7 out of 10 people of working age are unemployed or do not have an adequate job that guarantees a minimum wage and social benefits.[10] Therefore, the argument goes, Ecuador cannot afford to close down the extraction activities in the ITT oil field. Various civil society actors, however, are not giving up and are committed to pushing the mandate forward. This is the case of a group of economists who came together to imagine economic alternatives to manage the transition away from fossil fuels. The ideas they came up with are many. First, the closure of the Yasuní is perceived as a problem, but in reality, the problem is the economic model. For Mateo Villalba (economist and ex general manager of the Central Bank of Ecuador), the Ecuadorian economy has depended on the exploitation of primary goods (cacao, bananas, shrimp, and now crude oil) and is therefore an extractivist economy. The current recession dates back to 2015, when oil prices fell. In addition, Villalba acknowledges the “political cannibalism” to destroy and denigrate the opposition without a serious political strategy or agenda for the country. The third reflection is about the institutional weakness to enforce the law. For Villalba, these are the issues that need to be addressed in order to move toward a post-extractivist economy and a political sphere that respects laws and institutions. The recognition of the unsustainability of the extractivist economy is refreshing. Their economic alternatives require imagination to break away from pro-cyclical austerity measures while remaining committed to economic growth. These refreshing perspectives raise new questions and ways forward. One question to ponder is: Is it possible to achieve economic growth in a post-extractivist economy? Given the geopolitical tensions and pressures, is it possible to realize an economic model other than the extractivist one? Another cutting-edge reflection was presented by Carlos Larrea, also an economist, on the rapid depletion of oil in Ecuador, documented by solid statistical evidence. Again, the question of closing the ITT field becomes secondary. Faced with the facts, the question to ponder is: What kind of country do we want to have in 2035, when we have no more oil, oil to exploit and to export? According to BP, Ecuador has 7.4 years left to exploit its proven oil reserves(BP, 2021). So, what will Ecuador do after this period? |
Footnotes:
[1] Statement of the International Mission for the Yasuní also re-published on brennpunkt’s website on August 26, 2023 (https://www.brennpunkt.lu/declaration-de-la-mission-internationale-pour-yasuni/).
[2] Marx, E. (2010), ‘The Fight for Yasuni’, Science, 26 Nov 2010, Vol 330, Issue 6008, pp. 1170-1171, https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.330.6008.1170 (viewed 01 September 2024).
[3] Hill, D. (2014), ‘Ecuador: oil company has built ‘secret’ road deep into Yasuni National Park’, the Ecologist, 6 June 2014, https://amazonwatch.org/news/2014/0606-oil-company-has-built-secret-road-deep-into-yasuni-national-park (viewed 01 September 2024).
[4] Finer M., Mamani N., Josse C., Villacis S. (2022) ‘New Oil Platforms Deeper into Yasuni National Park (Ecuador), towards Uncontacted Indigenous Zone‘, MAAP: 150, 31 January 2022,
https://www.maaproject.org/2022/yasuni_itt/ (viewed 01 September 2024).
[5] Crespo Burgos, C. (2024), ‘Ecuador: Yasuní a un año de la consulta popular’, pressenza, 10 August 2024, https://www.pressenza.com/es/2024/08/ecuador-yasuni-a-un-ano-de-la-consulta-popular/ (viewed 01 September 2024).
[6] Orozco, M. (2024), ‘Petroecuador necesitaría tres años para cerrar el ITT; pero el plazo se mantiene en uno’, primicias, 23 July 2024, https://www.primicias.ec/economia/itt-corte-constitucional-petroecuador-plazo-cierre-yasuni-74693/ (viewed 01 September 2024).
[7] Maristella Svampa studies the socio-ecological crisis, socio-environmental conflicts and resistance in Latin America, neo-extractivism, and the challenges of the eco-social transition from the South.
[8] Acción Ecológica (2024), Ecos del Yasuní, issue 4, 25 June2024. Acción Ecológica is a partner of ASTM.
[9] In the recreation of territories of life.
[10] Mella, C. (2024), ‘Ecuador entra en recession por la caida de la produccion petrolera’, El Pais, 24 July 2024, https://elpais.com/america/2024-07-24/ecuador-entra-en-recesion-por-la-caida-de-la-produccion-petrolera-y-las-movilizaciones-masivas.html (viewed 01 September 2024).
