Last Monday, voters in Ecuador approved of two referendums to ban oil drilling in the Yasuni nature reserve in the Amazon Basin, and mining in the Choco Andino forest outside Quito, the capital. According to the environmental ministry, one hectare, equivalent to 2.5 acres, in Yasuni has 650 species of trees as well as hundreds of species of animals. Indigenous leaders and environmentalists welcome this development. This was despite warnings from oil and mining groups about billions of dollars in lost income. Petroecuador, the state oil and gas company, has been given a year to end production. See www.reuters.com/article/ecuador-election-environment-idAFL1N3A21L1.
According to Al Jazeera, the Yasuni National Park is the refuge to more than twenty types of endangered mammals; while a single hectare of forest is home to more than 100,000 species of insects. An estimated 80 percent of the species living there are still unknown to scientists. Continued oil extraction would therefore mean those species could be destroyed before they are even discovered. See https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2014/10/21/ecuadors-thirst-for-oil-threatens-wildlife. The auditing arrangements relating to the 2016 Petroleum Sharing Agreement (PSA) between the Government of Guyana and ExxonMobil’s subsidiaries have generated much controversy over the past few weeks. So far, we have carried three articles on the subject. In today’s article, we revisit the provisions contained in the Agreement and assess the extent to which there has been compliance.