Earlier this year, something extraordinary happened. For the first time in history, a nation’s people directly voted to keep fossil fuels in the ground. In a national referendum on 20 August, Ecuador said ‘si’ to ending oil drilling in Yasuní National Park.
One of the most biologically diverse places on the planet, Yasuní is home to the Waoraní, Kichwa and Shuar peoples, as well as some of the world’s last Indigenous communities still living in voluntary isolation. But beneath this UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve lies a quarter of Ecuador’s known oil reserves.1
