Location: Napo and Pastaza Provinces Map
Area: 9,820 km2
Yasuní National Park is a protected biosphere located in Napo and Pastaza Provinces in Ecuador. Yasuní National Park covers an area of 9,820 km2.
The Yasuni National Park is located in the
Ecuadorian Amazon region (PNY), is located in areas of the
sub-basins of the Tiputini, Yasuni, Nashiño, Cononaco and Curaray
rivers, tributaries of the Napo River, which at the same time flows
into the Amazon. The Park is shaped like a horseshoe and comprises
from the southern part of the Napo River and north of the Curaray
River, extending through the middle basin of the Tivacuno River,
according to a recent study, the Yasuní National Park and the
underlying extended area are considered the most Biodiverse of the
planet for its richness in amphibians, birds, mammals and plants.
This park has more species of animals per hectare than all of Europe
together
Biodiversity
Fajiblanca swallow on a tree trunk
at the edge of the Tiputini River.
Yasuni is one of the most
biodiverse areas on Earth, studies speak of 150 species of
amphibians, 121 reptiles, 598 species of birds, between 169
(confirmed) and 204 (estimated) mammals, and in flora they have been
identified 2113 species and it is estimated that there are about
3100.
Intangible Zone
It should be noted that the
Ecuadorian Amazon area is rich in oil fields and that the oil
economy is the pillar on which the economy of the Ecuadorian State
has been sustained since the 1970s. Given this, in 1998 the Jamil
Mahuad government declared the southern zone of PNY as an Intangible
Zone, to protect the peoples in voluntary isolation and preserve the
biosphere reserve away from the oil fields.
Park financing
In February 2013, the German government made the delivery of 46
million dollars to the "Special Yasuni Biosphere Reserve Program"
for renewable energy, forest conservation and social development
projects of the indigenous communities of the Yasuni area.
One of the projects to be financed by Germany is the Rainforest
Fund, the foundation of singer Sting and his wife Trudie Styler, a
system that allows the supply of drinking water for human
consumption. This project will allow rainwater to be collected,
filtered and stored in 300 tanks - to which 700 more would be added
- for the use of local Indians who currently do not have drinking
water and consume water from rivers that are often contaminated with
Petroleum.
There is also the proposal to maintain the
preservation of the vast majority of the extension of the national
park with the carbon bond market proposed by the Kyoto Protocol,
where the Ecuadorian government could commit in the future to limit
the area of oil exploitation to less 1% of the total territory of
the national park, so as not to affect most of the hectares of the
forest, preserve most of the trees in the national park and reforest
the areas affected by an oil activity in the future.