Ecuador to use its oil as 'climate debt' chip

Oil-rich Ecuador will be making money off its oil reserves by keeping some of its oil in the ground, under the terms of a new approach crafted in December at the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen.
The program is aimed at reducing carbon dioxide emissions by asking the developed world to pay a price for its longstanding "climate debt."
Under terms of the accord, a multi-donor trust fund will be set up to pay Ecuador what it would have earned in oil revenue if it had extracted the oil from the Amazon rainforest of its Yasuni National Park, according to news reports. In exchange for leaving nearly one billion barrels of oil in the ground, Ecuador is asking for compensation of $350 million a year for 10 years.
The United Nations Development Program is to administer the Yasuni Trust Fund.
So far, the governments of Germany and Spain have committed money to support the project. Ecuador also has launched an in-country campaign to raise funds from small donors.
Ecuador's leftist president, Rafael Correa, recently elected to a second term in office, first came up with the idea in 2007. It's a project that packs plenty of punch.
Not only does Ecuador get money, it also becomes a green leader. Leaving the oil untapped will reduce carbon dioxide emissions -- and leave trees standing that would have been cut for drilling. Experts say that the program could reduce harmful carbon dioxide by between 407 to 547 million tons.

The plan also strikes a blow on behalf of its indigenous populations. The homelands of one of the world's last uncontacted indigenous tribes, the Taromenane, are located in the Yasuni Park, in the Ecuadorian Amazon Basin, reports Mongabay.com. Together with the Tagaeri they make up the two last known indigenous groups living in voluntary isolation in Ecuador.
The rainforest also is home to threatened monkeys, pumas and jaguars.
The project has reinvigorated the government in its support for other indigenous populations, which are still fighting Texaco, now Chevron, in a $27 billion lawsuit in the United States for damaging their environment and their health while drilling for oil.
The Ecuadoran government recently asked a U.S. judge to stop Chevron from pursing a claim for international arbitration in the 16-year-old legal action, Reuters reported.