Ecuadorian environmental authorities have authorized a highly controversial plan to allow drilling in the Ishpingo-Tambococha-Tiputini (ITT) block, an oil concession area partly located in world-renowned Yasuní National Park. Meanwhile, organizers of a petition to block drilling in Yasuní are seeking to overturn the government’s rejection of hundreds of thousands of signatures they’d gathered to force a referendum on the issue. On May 22, Environment Minister Lorena Tapia granted a license for oil development in two of the three oilfields in the ITT concession, also known as block 43: Tiputini, which is located outside the park, and Tambococha, which is within the park boundaries. Tapia says the license allows the concession holder—Petroamazonas, Ecuador’s state oil company—to begin building worker housing and... [Log in to read more]