Internal Alternatives (LINGO Incentives)

In 2007, Ecuador proposed to protect an oil block called Ishpingo-Tiputini-Tambococha (ITT) in its Yasuní National Park from oil drilling in exchange for $3.6 billion in international funds. It raised $116 million in pledges and contributions, but failed to secure the full amount and the initiative was abandoned in 2013. It was a revolutionary and pioneering mechanism ahead of its time in a nation heavily reliant on oil exports. Its failure should not discourage future innovations. The Yasuní Initiative should serve as a lesson to learn from its mistakes and envision new financial incentives to forego fossil fuel extraction.

Since 2016, the ITT block has been undergoing extraction which has caused environmental damage, including oil spills and road construction in the biodiverse area of the Yasuní National Park. In the meantime a national referendum in 2023 stopped oil extraction in ITT. Ecuadorian economists have proposed different fiscal and tax measures to raise bigger amounts than what the ITT block could contribute. This points to the interesting possibility that people of a country may also want to leave their oil in the ground without external financial incentives and generate financial alternatives internally.

Resources :

• Yasunido (2024) Propuestas económicas para dejar de explotar el yasuní ITT, Informes, August 2024
• María Cristina Vallejo, Carlos Larrea & al. (2015), Leaving oil underground in Ecuador: The Yasuní-ITT initiative from a multi-criteria perspective, Report, January 2015
• Le Quang, Matthieu, and Mariana Ortega Breña, (2016), The Yasuní-ITT Initiative: Toward New Imaginaries, Report, June 2016