Citizens of #Ecuador voted this week to halt the development of oil drilling in the #Yasuní national park in the #Amazon, the Guardian reported.

In what Climate Home News described as a “first of its kind” referendum, the Ecuadorian public voted 59%-41% to #ban #oil #exploitation in “one of the largest biodiversity hotspots on the planet”, which is “home to Indigenous people in voluntary isolation”.

OIL STAY PUT: The result will require #Petroecuador, Ecuador’s state-owned oil company, to close all of its active oil wells and remove all infrastructure from a portion of the national park within a year, reported Axios.

Petroecuador produces nearly 60,000 barrels a day from its current operations in the park, noted the Hill.

The advocacy group Amazon Watch said the decision would “permanently keep an estimated 1bn barrels of oil in the ground”.

SETTING AN EXAMPLE

The Spanish-language online magazine Climática reported that ethnic groups #Waorani, #Kichwa and #Shuar considered the referendum a victory and campaigners said that it was the first time Ecuador had “decided to defend life and leave the oil in the ground”.

Brazil’s civil-society organisations said they expected their country to follow Ecuador’s example, Brazilian newspaper Folha de Sao Paulo reported.