Yasuní

Declared in 1979 and a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve since 1989, Yasuní is reckoned by scientific studies to be one of the most biodiverse places per hectare documented on the planet, holding world records for the number of amphibian, bat and insect species in comparable areas. It is home to the Tagaeri and Taromenane peoples, in voluntary isolation and with no regular contact with the rest of society, whose legal protection runs directly up against major oil reserves beneath the park. In 2007 Ecuador put forward a pioneering international initiative — the Yasuní-ITT Initiative — to leave the oil in the ground in exchange for international compensation; when the expected funds failed to materialise, the government partly authorised extraction in 2016, though in a national referendum in 2023 Ecuadorians voted by a majority to halt drilling in the park's most sensitive block.