Yasuni Wildlife Channel

The privileged location of the Yasuni between: the Andes, the Western Amazon Basin and the Equator make the Ecuador's most interesting wilderness for Mankind: the Yasuni Biosphere Reserve; home of the extraordinary biodiversity and a recently contacted Amazonian indigenous group known as the Waorani (or Huaorani). Relatives of the Waorani, the Tagaeri and Taromenane, still live in voluntary isolation deep in the reserve.

The Yasuní Biosphere Reserve also sits atop large reserves of crude oil, Ecuador's chief export, and contains an abundance of valuable timber species. This volatile combination has led to intense conflicts, and subsequently, increased international interest and concern.

In 1989, the area in and around the original limits of Yasuni National Park was designated as a Man and the Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization). The Yasuni Biosphere Reserve
Now covers 16 820 km2, including a 5000 km2 core area. According to UNESCO documents, this core area is centered on the Yasuni and Nushiño Rivers in the northeast section of the park. The rest of the reserve (a 7000 km2 buffer zone and a 4820 km2 transition zone) includes much of the remaining park area and the adjacent Waorani Ethnic Reserve. The Yasuni Biosphere Reserve is the core of a small, unique area where South America's plant, amphibian, bird, and mammal species richness centers overlap Furthermore, the reserve is located within the 'Core Amazon', an especially wet region to maintain wet, rainforest conditions as climate change-induced drought intensifies in the Eastern Amazon. Haffer (1969, 1997) postulated that the area in and around the Yasuni Biosphere Reserve was one of several Amazonian forest refugia during dry climatic periods over the past 65 million years, but this hypothesis has now largely been rejected (Mayle et al 2004, Maslin et al 2005).

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