Ecuador Decides Not to Ban Oil Drilling in the Rain Forest

Environmentalists unhappy, naturally

The decision by Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa to abandon a plan to spare the species-rich Yasuní rain forest in eastern Ecuador from oil development has dashed hopes for what environmentalists had hailed as a historic approach to weaning industrial society from its dependence on fossil fuels.

"Ecuador and the world have lost an opportunity to shape a revolutionary initiative," said Alberto Acosta, Ecuador's former minister of energy and mines, and one of the chief architects of the so-called Yasuní-ITT Initiative, which Correa unveiled to the international community in 2007. "It was a giant step on the road toward post-extractivism."