A 360-degree spin on my heels confirms that I’m surrounded. By trees. A dense forest stretches as far as the eye can see. Trees of every possible shade of green, with leaves the size of parasols and the occasional towering ceiba – a giant variety that pokes head and shoulders above the rest of the rainforest canopy. I’m 36 metres up a bird-watching tower, overlooking a fraction of the mighty Yasuní National Park in the heart of the Ecuadorian Amazon, and I feel tiny.
It is here that Ecuador is confronting a dilemma of epic proportions. Beneath a pristine patch of this Park – which scientists now agree is the most biodiverse swathe of rainforest on earth – lies over $7 billion-worth of oil. The estimated 846 million barrels lie in three oilfields – Ishpingo, Tambococha and Tiputini, or ITT for short – and equate to a fifth of Ecuador’s total oil reserves. But rather than exploiting the oil, Ecuador’s president, Rafael Correa, has put forward an unprecedented alternative: leave the crude underground indefinitely and instead seek compensation from the rest of the world to the tune of $3.6 billion – roughly half its market value.
