By Forests.org, December 5, 2004

TAKE ACTION - Completely new and updated!
Oil Extraction and Protected Areas Do Not Mix
http://forests.org/action/ecuador/

Despite widespread protests, the Brazilian national oil company PetroBras
will soon begin building a 45 kilometer (28 miles) access road into the
heart of the ultradiverse Yasuní National Park in the Ecuadorian Amazon, a
designated UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. The park contains one of the highest
known levels of plant diversity per hectare in the world. Wildlife abounds
as jaguars still roam, woolly and spider monkeys still swing through the
trees, and harpy eagles patrol the canopy. In June, Forests.org with
Rettet den Regenwald e.V. (Rainforest Rescue, a German NGO) brought the
situation to a wide international audience. Despite our initial protests,
in August the Ecuadorian government granted the Brazilian national oil
company Petrobras a license to construct a new road into an undisturbed
part of the park to facilitate oil extraction. Ecuadorian environmental
and human rights groups immediately launched a lawsuit in Ecuador's
Constitutional Court to halt the project. The groups lost the initial suit
and are now appealing. The proposed road will be a completely new artery,
opening access into remote, primary Amazonian rainforest relatively
untouched by human activities, while transecting the territory of
indigenous communities. As has happened elsewhere, it will trigger an
irreversible wave of colonization and over hunting. In early December,
fifty international rainforest scientists declared strong opposition to
construction of the new oil road, calling for the government of Ecuador to
enact a law prohibiting future road building in its national parks.
Please support their call by taking action at
http://forests.org/action/ecuador/ .

Please forward widely.
Networked by Forests.org, Inc., gbarry@forests.org

Glen Barry, Ph.D.
President
Forests.org, Inc.
gbarry@forests.org
608 213 9224
http://forests.org/