Ecuador: The Rights of Nature Threatened in Yasuní National Park

Important article on current events in Ecuador.

On August 27, 2013, Indigenous and environmentalist activists took to the streets of Ecuador to protest against a reversal in government plans not to drill for oil in the ecologically sensitive Yasuní National Park in the eastern Amazon basin.

UNESCO designated the park as a world biosphere reserve in 1989 because it contains 100,000 species of animals, many which are not found anywhere else in the world. Each hectare of the forest reportedly contains more tree species than in all of North America.

Not drilling in the pristine rainforest would both protect its rich mix of wildlife and plant life and help halt climate change by preventing the release of more than 400 million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

Ecuador: The Rights of Nature Threatened in Yasuní National Park.