One of the most mega-biodiverse spots of the planet, the Yasuní National Park, is also home to two indige-

nous communities living in voluntary isolation.One hectare of Yasuní holds 655 species of trees, more than the total number of species recorded in

the United States and Canada together.

About 20% of the country’s proven oil reserves are located in the ground of the Ishpingo,

Tambococha, Tiputini oil fields.

Keeping the oil in the soil shall avoid the emission of 1.2 million metric tons of carbon dioxide and shall guarantee conservation of this valuable biodiversity, much of which still requires exploration and testing

for possible scientific and medical use.

What is Yasuní-ITT initiative?

The President of Ecuador, Rafael Correa announced in 2007, at The General Assembly of the United Nations, the country’s commitment to maintain indefinitely unex-ploited reserves of 846 million barrels of oil in the ITT (Ishpingo-Tambococha-Tiputini), equivalent to the 20% of the country’s reserves, located in Yasuní National Park inside Ecuadorian Amazon.

“This would be an extraordinary example of global col-lective action, that would allow not only reduce global warming, which benefits the whole planet, but also intro-duce a new economic logic for the 21st century, which assigns a value to things other than merchandise.” In effect, the president Correa proposed the international community contributes financially with at least 3.6 billion U.S., a sum that represents half of the revenue lost to the Ecuadorian state.

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The money would go into a capital fund to be admin-istered by the United Nations Development Program, UNDP with the Ecuadorian State, Ecuadorian civil soci-ety and contributors’ representatives.

This initiative will allow avoiding the emission of 407 mil-lion tons of CO2, the main gas causing global warming. This reduction is greater than the annual emissions of countries such as Brazil or France.

The Yasuní National Park is the most important reser-voir of biodiversity on the planet and home two indig-enous peoples in voluntary isolation in Ecuador, the Tagaeri and Taromenane.

What is Yasuní-ITT initiative?

Why the initiative was born?

The Yasuní-ITT initiative is part of Ecuador’s commitment to maintain reserves indefinitely untapped oil underground in Yasuní National Park, the most biodiversity place on the planet.

This initiative is born by the need to conserve biodiversity and a minimum of respect for the indigenous community living in vol-untary isolation

How does the initiative work?Ecuador is committed to indefinitely unexploited oil reserves in the ITT Yasuní National Park.

The international community provides funds to develop renew-able energy sources in Ecuador, maintaining ecosystems and protected areas, reforestation damaged areas, promote social development and sustainable employment, and improve energy efficiency.

These funds are administered by the United Nations Develop-ment Programmed (UNDP) and invested by the Ecuadorian State. Ecuador has signed an agreement with UNDP interna-tional trust to run the initiative.

Thousand of living things gathered together in Yasuní preserving a unique evolutionary process.

2274 species of trees and bushes. 655 were counted in one single hectare and in total these exceed the number of species of trees in Canada and the USA.

141 species of amphibians and 382 species of fresh water fish.

100,000 species of insects per hectare. 121 species of reptiles and 4,000 plants.

630 species of birds and 169 species of mammals in just 9,820 km 2(an area equivalent to 0.15% of the Amazon)

The Tagaeri and Taromenani, in voluntary isolation, are the mysterious spirit surrounding the jungle.

In 2007 Yasuni National Park was declared part of the World Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO.