After decades of chronic pollution and a David versus Goliath fight by the Indigenous communities against Big Oil, the people of Ecuador have voted in a referendum against drilling for oil in one protected area of the Amazon.
Ecuadorians have voted overwhelmingly to stop oil exploration in the highly contested Block 43 in the Yasuni National Park in the Amazon, which encompasses one million hectares inhabited by the “uncontacted” Tagaeri and Taromenani tribes.
The region is one of the most biologically diverse regions in the world and is home to hundreds of bird species, amphibians, and reptiles. The result will also mean over 700 million barrels of oil stays in the ground.
— source priceofoil.org | Andy Rowell | Aug 22, 2023