s largest tropical rainforest • New species of the Amazon rainforest - in pictures A purring monkey, a vegetarian piranha and a flame-patterned lizard are among more than 400 new species of animals and plants that have been discovered in the past four years in the Amazon rainforest, conservationists say. Discovered through hundreds of scientific expeditions between 2010 to 2013, the total of 441 new...
s president accused of violating human rights" , which quoted a report and statements by Human Rights Watch (HRW), available on its website here . Dr Juan Falconi Puig, Ecuador's ambassador to the UK, has written to contest the substance of HRW's report, particularly the claim that the president, Rafael Correa, targeted an opposition legislator, José Cléver Jiménez Cabrera, through the courts. Describing...
t be fooled by what he claims The decision by Ecuador's president Rafael Correa to abandon a plan to permanently forgo exploiting hundreds of millions of barrels of oil in return for at least US$3.6bn in compensation – the "Yasuni-ITT Initiative" – has sparked severe non-state media criticism in Ecuador, calls for a referendum, protests in numerous cities and embassies around the world, and an international...
s President Rafael Correa has been urged by Human Rights Watch (HRW) to stop using criminal defamation laws to target his critics. It argues that the convictions of an opposition legislator, José Cléver Jiménez Cabrera, and two union members for slandering the president violate their right to freedom of expression. "President Correa has long made it clear that he's willing to go after anyone who criticises...
s request gave Cumberbatch 'real cause for concern' as he addressed his role in The Fifth Estate British actor Benedict Cumberbatch says a letter from WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange asking him not to do a film about the emergence of the anti-secrecy website affected his portrayal of him in The Fifth Estate. Cumberbatch, 37, said in an "ask me anything" interview on content-sharing site Reddit on...
t deliver the financial support that was essential to carry out our environmental plan not to drill for oil It was with a heavy heart that Ecuador's President Rafael Correa recently announced the end of the pioneering Yasuní ITT initiative . Six years ago, the president, with great enthusiasm, announced this proposal at the UN. Ecuador would leave the vast oil reserves underground in the Yasuní national...
front doors. I noticed that the protocols of Britishness came to the fore in those situations – it opened up a common ground, allowing the recipient and I to manoeuvre more comfortably within what was quite an unusual set of circumstances. Some moments on my bicycle were extremely gruelling – the Devonshire hills in the blazing heat and the outskirts of Glasgow in the driving rain – while others were...
s reserves – in Yasuní national park . Crazy though the idea seemed, however, it attracted support and grew stronger. The Yasuní initiative emerged from civil society, even before Correa became a presidential candidate in 2006. Its evolution was influenced by the Chevron Texaco disasters in the northern Amazon , and by resistance from the community of Sarayaku. Yasuní-ITT would prevent 410m tonnes...
s president, Rafael Correa, announced earlier this month that he has no choice but to go ahead with drilling operations in one of the planet's most biodiverse region, the Yasuní national park. Back in 2007, he proposed the Yasuní-ITT initiative, an innovative way to protect this biologically important piece of Amazon rainforest. The plan sought funds to cover a portion of the loss of income associated...
One of the world's pristine rainforest and home to a unique biodiversity could be lost forever as presidential disregard for a radical conservation plan throws it open to oil companies ...
s unilateral sanction for drilling The fate of one of the hotspots of global diversity is hanging by a thread as conservation and indigenous groups in Ecuador race to raise a petition of over half a million names which would force a national referendum on whether foreign oil companies be allowed into the Yasuní national park. President Rafael Correa of Ecuador appeared to sign the death warrant of...