Angry, Yasuni, Niebel

On my last week in Ecuador I went to a Lodge in the Rainforest, run by the local Sani on the border of Yasuni National Park.

It is one of the most amazing places, maybe the most amazing place, I have ever seen.
We went there by boat - seeing Oil production sites, destroying the forest, all along the way.

Back home I started reading about this paradise and am both saddened and enraged by the role the german government, represented by our "development minister" Niebel (FDP- what else?!) plays.
Here´s an article (in german). (There are more on Spiegel online etc.)

"This is the chance of a lifetime: a unique opportunity to preserve the moths that hover over a tapir´s eye just long enough to drink from its tear duct, or the poison-dart frogs that piggyback their recently hatched tadpoles from the forest floor uo to the small pools that form in bromeliads high in the canopy. Let´s hope the world takes it." (BBC Wildlife, David Herasimtschuk, Oct 2011)
Well, I guess Germany won´t.

Thanks to farsighted people like Mr. Niebel my Niece and Nephew won´t be able to discover places like Yasuni once they´re my age.
But I guess we cannot really afford to spend 40 mil dollars on something as ridiculous as protecting one of the worlds most biodeverse places on earth (and it´s people!), the money is much better spent on saving another bank, and another one....and of course we have garanties there that the money is well spent.
Tell the ecuadorians to cut down the forest, once they replant it they´ll get money for CO2 savings or whatever ...

Link to Yasuni-itt: http://yasuni-itt.gob.ec/