- Following a long fight led by Indigenous activists and environmental leaders, Ecuadorians voted decisively to end oil drilling in the Yasuní National Park.
- Nearly 60 percent of voters supported the ban on oil drilling in the Ishpingo-Tambococha-Tiputini area of the Yasuní National Park, a UNESCO world biosphere reserve.
- The referendum also included a vote to stop further mining exploration in the Andean Chocó region, a cloud forest in northern Ecuador that is also a UNESCO biosphere reserve.
- The park is located at the intersection of the Amazon and the Andes.
- It is home to Indigenous groups, including the Tagaeri and Taromenani people, who live in voluntary isolation — as well as more than 2,000 species of plants, and hundreds of species of birds, mammals, reptiles and fish.
- This biodiversity haven also holds some of Ecuador’s largest oil reserves.
