MaximsNewsNetwork: ECUADOR CONSERVATION & OIL DEVASTATION

MaximsNewsNetwork: 10 July 2009 - Decades of oil drilling in Ecuador has devastated huge swaths of the Amazon rain forest and its wildlife, threatening to destroy the ancestral homes of native tribes and their culture. But some of those people are finding a way to balance development and conservation. UNTV.

Its early morning. A loud screeching noise fills the air. Appearing in twos and fours, the parakeets and parrots arrive. They descend from the rainforest, branch by branch, to the clay bank below.

They come for the mineral rich clay an antidote to the toxins in the nuts and seeds.

This corner of the Ecuadorian Amazon jungle is the Yasuni National Park. Its a lush habitat for many kinds of plants and wildlife. The park contains more species of flora and fauna than all of North America.

Tourists from around the world come to see the dramatic diversity of life more than five hundred fifty recorded species of birds, and the endangered giant otters.

The Yasuni National Park covers two and a half million acres of rainforest in the easternmost part of Ecuador. The park is known as one of the most bio-diverse places on earth, and UNESCO designated the area as a biosphere reserve to protect its wildlife and to ensure sustainable livelihoods.




But the park also sits on large oil deposits. And behind its seemingly peaceful lushness lies a struggle by the indigenous peoples to protect their ancestral land against reckless exploitation by oil companies.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Ecuador
• oil drilling
• Amazon rain forest
• native tribes
• conservation
• UNTV
• Yasuni
• MaximsNews Network