Yasuní-ITT Initiative

The Yasuní-ITT Initiative was a project that attempted to keep over a billion barrels of oil in the ground under the Yasuni National Park in the Ecuadorian Amazon. The initiative was launched in 2007 by Ecuadorian president Rafael Correa and offered a perpetual suspension of oil extraction from the Ishpingo-Tambococha-Tiputini oil field (ITT) in return for $3.6 billion from the international community (half of what Ecuador would have realized in revenue from exploiting the resources at 2007 prices).

Yasuni National Park is one of the most biodiverse places on Earth and is home to many Indigenous people, including Tagaeri and Taromenane people living in voluntary isolation from the world community. The aim of the initiative was to conserve biodiversity, protect indigenous peoples living in voluntary isolation, and prevent CO₂ emissions. The ITT reserve had around 846 million barrels or 20% of the country's proven oil reserve. The initiative envisioned a transition to a sustainable economy, using the funds to create jobs in such sectors as renewable energy while protecting the region's biodiversity and social equality.

After receiving pledges totaling $200 million by 2012, the Ecuadorian government announced that it would move forward with the Yasuni-ITT Initiative. However, in July 2013, the commission on the Yasuni-ITT Initiative's progress concluded that economic results were insufficient, leading Correa to scrap the plan on August 15, 2013. Oil drilling began in the park in 2016, and in 2019 President Lenín Moreno expanded the drilling area into the buffer zone intended to protect Indigenous communities.