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free. Welcome

1:08

to Northeast Ecuador, one of the

1:10

most biodiverse places on earth. Kelly

1:14

Swing founded Tipputini Biodiversity Station here

1:16

in the 1990s. He'd

1:19

be the first to tell you how special this

1:21

region is. Yassuni National Park

1:23

is right across the river. A

1:26

hectare of rainforest in

1:28

Yassuni has probably

1:32

around or maybe even over 600

1:34

species of trees per

1:37

hectare. In the

1:39

US, if you're in a mature forest

1:42

in the eastern part of the country, you

1:44

could walk an entire morning and maybe

1:47

not see 10 species of trees. If

1:50

we talk about birds, the

1:52

Yassuni has close

1:54

to 600 species. If

1:57

You look at the US and Canada together, about.

2:00

Eight hundred species. Cats.

2:02

They're five species of fi. In

2:06

In in the Us sunni which is

2:08

also. Pretty spectacular course.

2:10

When you say five, that doesn't sound

2:12

like a gigantic number, but if you're

2:14

done about. Cat species.

2:17

Is an enormous number. Any

2:20

place you impact. Is.

2:22

Gonna affect more species that would

2:24

anywhere else on planet. This.

2:27

Biodiversity doesn't make for a spectacular

2:29

walk through the jungle. And.

2:31

Also bode well for medicine. And.

2:34

Business people use hundreds of species

2:36

of plants for different kinds of

2:38

remedies. Their. Their. Pharmaceutical products

2:40

that have been derived from those things

2:42

that are worth. Lots. Of money?

2:44

Why couldn't there be? One.

2:46

Of those plants. You. Know in the Us

2:49

and the. The.

2:53

Us needs importance goes beyond even

2:55

as biodiversity and potential for from

2:58

suitable. And dollar Reverse

3:00

Torres teaches ecology at the University of

3:02

He's going to Eat Them. He says

3:04

that yes, For human

3:07

survival. Plans. In the

3:09

rain forest conduct photosynthesis and. Produce

3:11

water vapor. Water

3:13

vapor is then transform into

3:15

humidity. Dad will go up

3:17

right in the sky and

3:20

then through wins will move.

3:23

Towards. The west and then it

3:25

will sit the and this rights

3:27

that is literally these wall to

3:29

the west and and are you

3:31

know temperature drops also pressure is

3:33

gonna be different and then you

3:35

have precipitation and all that precipitation

3:37

is and filling up or prefers

3:39

or the high and in for

3:41

is here we could but amazon

3:43

are determined responses of the water

3:45

than them is gonna be yields

3:47

to have been water resource that

3:50

is the main source for like

3:52

millions of Ecuadorians millions. Of South Americans.

3:56

On paper, Yasuni looks pretty

3:58

well protected. It became

4:00

a national park in Nineteen Seventy Nine

4:02

and a Unesco biosphere Reserve. And Nineteen

4:05

Eighty Nine. For. Oil had

4:07

already been discovered in the park by then. Currently.

4:10

Seven active oil blocks overlap with the

4:13

boundaries of the national Park. That's.

4:15

Despite the fact that in two thousand

4:17

and eight, Ecuador became the first country

4:19

in the world to ratify rights of

4:21

nature and it's constitution. You.

4:23

Can learn more about that in detail in

4:25

the first season of our sister podcast, Damages.

4:28

For. Our Purposes: It's important to

4:30

understand that the Ecuadorian constitution states

4:33

that nature or pots a mama

4:35

were life is reproduced and the

4:37

Kurds had the right to integral

4:39

respect for it's existence and for

4:42

the maintenance and regeneration of it's

4:44

life cycles, structure, functions, and evolutionary

4:46

process. You. But any

4:48

underground resources belong to the government,

4:51

so drilling happens anyway. Rights.

4:53

Of nature be damned. Oil

4:58

extraction has become less invasive over the

5:00

years, but it's still impacts everything that

5:02

makes us any special. Go.

5:05

Industry is far less.

5:09

Expensive and expansive minutes in it's

5:11

operations in impacts today Than there

5:13

were men they were decades you.

5:16

Back. Then deforestation was rampant.

5:18

Oil spills were more common.

5:21

Oil companies built roads that lead

5:23

to over hunting colonization and noise

5:25

pollution. All. Impacts that the

5:27

region is still dealing with today. Technology

5:30

has changed. they've incorporated different

5:32

strategies. no strategies benefit them

5:35

financially to of but it's

5:37

is better was boat does

5:39

not approach of idea that

5:41

Rafael Correa talked about during

5:43

his time of oh were

5:45

are going to impact no

5:47

own or which is one

5:49

tenth of one percent of

5:51

the land area site. I

5:55

do that. oil

5:58

extraction produces natural gas, and

6:00

oil companies burned that extra gas in

6:02

big flames called gas flares. Ecuador

6:06

banned gas flares in 2021 because they

6:08

appeared to cause cancer in the people

6:10

who live nearby. But

6:12

I saw multiple flames coming from different oil

6:14

blocks in October 2023, so I know that at

6:18

least some polluting practices persist. That

6:23

brings us back to 2013. Ecuador's

6:26

president at the time, Rafael

6:28

Correa, made one of the Yassuni's

6:30

oil blocks famous, with his initiative

6:32

to leave its oil underground. It

6:35

was called Block 43, or the ITT

6:37

Block, named for the three

6:39

oil fields inside it. Correa

6:42

asked other countries to pay Ecuador

6:44

$3.5 billion, about half the value

6:46

of the oil, to leave the

6:48

forest there intact. The

6:51

plan failed, and the ITT Block opened in

6:53

2016. It's

6:56

the most recent block to open in

6:58

Yassuni, and one of Ecuador's most productive.

7:02

It's controversial because some of its

7:04

crude is low quality and expensive to

7:06

extract, meaning that it brings in little

7:08

profit, and because it overlaps

7:10

with what's called the intangible zone, an

7:13

area designed to protect the rights of

7:15

indigenous groups living in the forest in

7:17

voluntary isolation. When

7:20

the ITT initiative failed, a group of

7:22

young people called Yassuniros rallied to get

7:25

Yassuni on the ballot. It

7:27

took 10 years, but it finally happened

7:29

this past August. Ecuadorians

7:32

voted whether or not to stop drilling in

7:34

the ITT Block. Environmentalists

7:36

argued that the rainforest was

7:39

worth protecting. Petro Ecuador,

7:41

the state-run oil company that

7:43

operates ITT, argued that

7:45

the lost income would be catastrophic for the

7:47

economy. The results were

7:50

decisive. Almost 60% of

7:52

Ecuadorians voted to stop drilling in

7:54

ITT. This made international

7:56

headlines as a win for the Amazon.

8:00

Ecuadorians have voted to stop oil

8:02

drilling in the Yasuni National Park, one of

8:04

the most biodiverse places on the planet, which

8:06

is part of the Amazon rainforest. It

8:09

was an environmental dilemma for

8:11

an oil-producing country, a dilemma

8:13

voters faced in last Sunday's

8:15

vote. In the end,

8:17

nearly six out of every ten voters chose

8:19

to protect the Yasuni. We

8:24

have saved the greatest biodiversity that

8:26

has been recognized nationally and internationally,

8:28

the leader of one of the

8:30

Yasuni's indigenous communities said. But

8:37

in Ecuador, even conservationists didn't know what

8:39

would come of it. After

8:42

the break, let the referendum actually mean

8:44

for the ITT bloc and for Yasuni

8:46

as a whole. This

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to save 40% and claim

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your free gifts. earthbreeze.com

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slash Drilled Free. The

10:17

ballot question asked voters, do you agree

10:19

that the Ecuadorian government should keep the

10:21

crude in ITT, known

10:24

as Block 43, underground

10:26

indefinitely? In

10:28

Spanish, Estados de el Cuerto en que

10:30

el Gobierno de Quatoriano Mantenga el Cruz

10:32

de EL ITT, conocido

10:35

como Block y Correnta y Tres, indefinitely

10:37

en el Subsuello. Below

10:40

the yes and no boxes was the fine print.

10:43

If the yes vote wins, it

10:45

said, there will be an organized

10:47

progressive withdrawal of all activity related

10:49

to oil extraction within

10:51

a year of the notification of the

10:53

official results. Additionally, the

10:55

state will not be able to take

10:57

action toward initiating new contracts to continue

10:59

the exploitation of ITT. The

11:03

vote passed, but some loud

11:05

voices said the government could ignore it.

11:08

In early September, a video surfaced

11:11

of then-President Guillermo Lasso saying the

11:13

vote was unenforceable. Separately,

11:15

the Minister of Energy and Mines said

11:17

the outcome depended only on the vote

11:19

in the province where ITT is located,

11:22

not in the country as a whole. Oregana

11:25

Province, home to ITT, voted

11:27

to keep drilling. So did

11:29

its neighbor, Succumbios. More on that

11:31

in a minute. Ecuador's

11:34

22 other provinces voted to stop. If

11:37

the minister were correct, then drilling would

11:39

continue in ITT. Environmental

11:42

lawyer Hugo Echeverria says the government

11:44

was talking about a consulta previa,

11:47

a different kind of vote that

11:49

allows indigenous Ecuadorians and Afro-Equidorians to

11:52

vote on projects that may impact

11:54

their ancestral homelands. She

11:56

says that the vote on drilling was a consulta

11:58

popula, a national vote. vote

12:01

that is

12:03

final. Regardless of

12:05

what the politicians say, it's a final

12:07

decision that has to be obeyed. Legally,

12:09

it has to be obeyed and will

12:11

be obeyed. The

12:17

timeline for closing down ITT caused

12:19

even more confusion. Petro

12:21

Ecuador asked the Constitutional Court for

12:24

three years to stop drilling, but the

12:26

court stuck to wound. The court

12:28

also demanded that within the same timeframe,

12:30

the oil companies start repairing the forest

12:32

where it had drilled. In

12:35

mid-November, Petro Ecuador announced that it will

12:37

stop drilling in ITT on August 31,

12:41

2024. That's the day of the court's deadline. It

12:44

plans to extract 11 million more barrels

12:46

of oil by then, which is slower

12:48

than peak production, but it's still

12:50

unclear how long Petro Ecuador has to remove

12:52

its equipment and what it means to repair

12:55

the forest. 59%

13:00

of voters across Ecuador voted to stop drilling

13:02

in ITT, but in the province of Ojajama,

13:04

where the ITT block is located, residents voted

13:07

to keep drilling, 58 to 42%. The big

13:09

reason was jobs. Romero

13:15

San Miguel has worked as a guide

13:17

at Tipputini Biodiversity Station for more than 20 years.

13:21

His face lights up when he spots monkeys.

13:23

He led my group trampling off the trail just to

13:26

get a better look. That's

13:35

Romero imitating the woolly monkeys call.

13:38

In some of my recordings, I can't tell

13:40

which noises come from Romero and which are

13:42

from monkeys. Before

13:44

coming to Tipputini, Romero capped in the

13:46

barge for an oil company. He's

13:49

seen firsthand what oil extraction does to

13:51

the forest. Whenever

14:01

there's drilling, there's a big

14:03

impact, primarily in deforestation. They

14:06

destroy certain animal's

14:08

habitat. Now

14:16

we're dealing with global warming from so

14:19

much deforestation, so much burning of gas.

14:21

But when it came to the ITT referendum,

14:27

Romero voted to keep drilling. He

14:30

worries about what his sons will do if they lose their

14:32

jobs. I have two sons who

14:34

work at Block 43. They work on the barges,

14:36

one's a captain and the other's an engineer. If

14:59

they're going to stop drilling, what will they do?

15:01

Where will they work? It's something I've

15:03

asked myself and sometimes mentioned to my

15:05

colleagues. These people, where are

15:08

they going to find work? It's a little

15:10

complicated. Other

15:14

folks I talked to were frustrated that people

15:17

far away in Quito, who work office jobs

15:19

and don't understand life in the Amazon, voted

15:22

to stop drilling when they benefit from

15:24

oil money too. And some

15:26

people were confused by the wording of the

15:28

referendum. One man told me

15:31

he voted yes because the region needed oil

15:33

jobs. But the yes vote was

15:35

to stop drilling. Others suspected

15:37

that the government would ignore the vote and

15:39

drill anyway. Some cited

15:41

a debunked conspiracy theory that Peru could

15:44

extract the oil with some kind of

15:46

horizontal type. My taxi

15:48

driver voted to stop drilling but thought the vote

15:50

to keep drilling had won. Petro

15:53

Ecuador has argued that it's helped the communities

15:55

where it drills. It has built

15:57

hospitals and schools and provided a safe and healthy environment for

15:59

the people. water filters to indigenous families.

16:03

But some folks in Koka, the capital

16:05

of Orejana Province, are frustrated

16:07

because they don't feel the benefits. They only

16:09

see oil money leave the region. One

16:12

man pointed out that there's not a single

16:15

university in the province of Orejana. Other

16:18

residents have experienced the downsides of

16:20

oil extractions, like oil spills, first-hand.

16:24

Jose Makaniya is also a guided to

16:26

Budini. He grew up in an

16:29

indigenous Kichwa community and moved to Koka for

16:31

high school. One morning, he went

16:33

to bathe in the river before walking the two

16:35

hours to school. I

16:56

got in the river to bathe one morning and

16:58

came out a little black. The river was full

17:00

of oil. The pipeline had

17:02

broken near Koka. My dad saw

17:04

me covered in that black stuff

17:06

and told me it was oil.

17:09

Jose later worked for an oil exploration

17:12

company. His job was to make

17:14

sure the other workers didn't do too much damage

17:16

to the forest while creating trails. But

17:18

he saw how underground explosions, which were set

17:21

off to find out whether there was oil

17:23

in the ground, scared the animals. The

17:26

animals were very stable. They

17:28

were like locals. They were in various

17:31

groups of animals. They

17:34

were very strong in their direction. They were

17:37

very strong. But they were not very stable

17:40

and they were very stable. They

17:42

were not very stable. They were like locals.

17:47

The

17:52

animals were scared. They went crazy, running in

17:54

all directions without knowing where to go. The

17:56

monkeys screamed. It made me so sad

17:58

that I said no. No more. No

18:01

more. No more. No more. Jose

18:05

left the oil company and became a guide to Butini

18:07

16 years ago. Four

18:10

years in, he came face to face with a

18:12

Black Panther. That's his favorite

18:15

wildlife encounter to date. It

18:20

was like a dream for me, seeing the Black

18:23

Jaguar, the Black Panther. Jose

18:26

voted to stop drilling in the ITT block

18:28

and was glad the referendum passed. We're

18:31

living and feeling the effects of climate

18:33

change. I'd

18:43

ask the world to promote caring for

18:45

nature because it's everybody's one, not

18:48

just Latin Americans or Amazonians. The

18:51

world is for everyone. Indeed,

18:55

the referendum was celebrated around the world

18:57

as a step toward protecting nature and

18:59

slowing climate change. But

19:02

the vote only stops extraction in one oil

19:04

block. When ITT closes,

19:07

six others will still overlap Yasuni

19:09

National Park, and there are

19:11

dozens more around Ecuador. The

19:13

vote doesn't affect drilling in any of those blocks.

19:17

The good news is that closing ITT

19:19

will leave about 700 million barrels of

19:21

oil underground. That oil

19:24

alone means 3 million metric tons of

19:26

carbon dioxide won't be emitted to the

19:28

atmosphere. But the symbolic

19:30

impact of this referendum may be even stronger.

19:33

Here's Kelly Swing again. Yasuni,

19:37

probably 80% of that land

19:39

area is still

19:42

pretty much what it was 100 years

19:44

ago or 300 years ago. When

19:47

you see the people turn

19:49

out and vote for something like this, you say, oh,

19:52

this is not a lost cause. There's

19:54

plenty out there to save, and

19:56

there's plenty of interest in saving

19:58

it. Oil has

20:01

been Ecuador's biggest export for 50 years.

20:03

It spurred huge economic growth in the 70s. The

20:07

country sends a good chunk of oil to the

20:09

U.S. too. It's

20:11

California's second largest source of crude. But

20:14

that oil won't last forever. By

20:17

some estimates, Ecuador will become a net importer

20:19

of oil by 2031. Ecuador

20:23

will have to outgrow its oil dependency sooner

20:25

or later. The referendum means

20:27

that that move is coming early for ICT. Carlos

20:32

Larea is an economist who helped design

20:34

Goraia's proposal to leave the ICT block

20:36

untouched back in 2007. He

20:39

says the most important thing for Ecuador's

20:41

economy is to diversify. Oil

20:46

has been the most important single export product

20:48

for about 50 years. And

20:53

Ecuador badly needs a policy

20:55

of economic diversification.

21:00

And our position

21:03

is that actually the

21:06

most important endowment

21:08

of Ecuador is its biodiversity

21:11

and its cultural diversity and

21:14

richness. It

21:16

needs to preserve nature

21:19

in the future in order

21:21

to survive as

21:23

a peaceful country. Larea

21:26

points to growing exports from the Amazon

21:28

like chocolate and guayusa, a plant that's

21:30

brewed like tea. The

21:32

region could also expand its tourism

21:34

sector, though Ecuador's recent increase in

21:36

crime might scare off potential visitors.

21:39

Larea stressed that diversification is key,

21:42

not just shifting dependence from one

21:44

export to another. He

21:47

doesn't want to see Ecuador rely too heavily

21:49

on another product or service that could run

21:51

out, lose value, or get shut

21:53

down by a popular vote. the

22:00

ecologist sees the ITT result as

22:02

an opportunity for Ecuador to take control of

22:04

its future. It

22:06

is a precedent for whatever can happen and

22:08

I think also opens now

22:11

the door to have the discussion of what

22:13

to do next because in 20 years it's

22:15

not going to be Ecuadorians voting to the

22:17

old companies to leave. The old companies are

22:19

going to be gone because there's not

22:21

going to be more oil to extract. So

22:24

I think now is a good moment if you ask me once

22:27

you know ITT or while ITT is

22:30

retired that we said

22:32

okay what is coming next for you? Drilled

22:40

is an original critical frequency production.

22:42

This episode was reported and written

22:45

by me, Macy Lipkin. Our senior

22:47

editors are Aline Brown and Sarah

22:49

Ventry. Your senior producer is

22:51

Martin Saltz-Ostwick who also does our sound

22:53

design and composed most of the music

22:56

in this episode. The episode

22:58

was mixed and mastered by Peter Duff. Fast

23:00

checking by Wudan Yan. Al

23:03

Adwick is by Matt Swimming. Our

23:05

first amendment attorney is James Leaton. The show

23:07

was created by Amy Westervald who also helped

23:10

edit this episode. You

23:12

can find related videos, photos, and print stories

23:14

for this series along with all the documentation

23:16

that we have to go along with the

23:18

series at drill.media. You can also subscribe to

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