Ecuador is pressing its appeal for wealthy countries to put up $3.6 billion to protect a pristine Amazon rain forest preserve by leaving its rich oil deposits untouched underground. Huaorani Indians who live in the area said during a visit by Ecuador's vice president over the weekend that they support the plan to prevent oil drilling. “It's fantastic,” said Luis Awa, a community member. He told visiting journalists that he believes drilling in other parts of Ecuador has usually sent profits abroad while local communities have been forgotten. “People throughout the world should be conscious that oil creates big impacts,” Awa said. A group of Huaorani women - with red face paint around their eyes and wearing necklaces made from forest seeds - welcomed Vice President Lenin Moreno and other visitors. They came with small children and held palm leaves. Moreno said during his visit Saturday that developed countries, responsible for most greenhouse gas emissions, should put up half of the estimated $7.2 billion that Ecuador would otherwise earn exploiting the oil. “We want to leave the oil underground for the benefit of humanity,” Moreno said at a research center where he spoke on a weekly television and radio program. “Let's put the brakes on this excessive development race ... and worry more about nature. Let's save Yasuni.” Germany's ambassador to Ecuador, Peter Linder, accompanied the vice president and said his government is interested in cooperating, though he did not specify whether Germany would provide funds for the initiative. Earlier this month, Ecuador signed an accord with the U.N. Development Program setting up a trust fund to be administered by the world body for the pioneering initiative. The government says Germany, Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Norway, Italy and the U.S. have expressed interest in contributing, but no country has publicly pledged a specific amount. The three oil fields under the Yasuni preserve would remain untapped for a decade under the agreement. They are estimated to hold 846 million barrels of crude, or about 20 percent of Ecuador's known reserves. Yasuni was declared a World Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO in 1989. It is home to thousands of plant species, at least 593 bird species and a wealth of other wildlife including bats, frogs and monkeys. Some monkeys leaped between trees on a riverbank as visitors were ferried through the forest by canoe. Manuela Ima, a community leader, gave the vice president a letter asking that initiatives involving Yasuni be carried out by consensus with the Huaorani and that the funds gathered be used to help provide housing, education and health care. Local farmers and indigenous tribes want US oil giant Chevron Corp to fund cleanup of areas they say were polluted with faulty drilling practices in the 1970s and ‘80s.
