Ecuador has 65 oil and gas lease blocks, 88% of them in the Amazon, covering a quarter of the country’s total area. That’s according to a new data set from the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI). Many of the lease blocks overlap with several Indigenous territories, including the Cuyabeno-Imuya Intangible Zone, which is home to 11 Indigenous communities from the Secoya, Siona, Cofán, Kichwa and Shuar nations. Oil and gas leases also overlap with other Indigenous Shuar communities in Pastaza and Morona Santiago provinces, among others. A Mongabay estimate based on the dataset found that roughly 21% of the leases overlap with protected areas and 61% overlap with Indigenous territories in Ecuador. Image by Andrés Alegría/Mongabay. The SEI data set also shows lease blocks overlapping with protected areas, including the west side of Yasuní National Park. In a historic referendum in 2023, more than 5.2 million Ecuadorians voted to halt all current and future oil drilling in the park. Cofán-Bermejo Ecological Reserve (RECB) and Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve, both home to a great diversity of wildlife including pink river dolphins (Inia geoffrensis) and jaguars (Panthera onca), also host active oil and gas production blocks, according to the data. Combined, the blocks cover 7 million hectares (17 million acres), one-fourth of Ecuador’s total land area. Alexandra Almeida, president of Ecuadorian environmental organization Acción Ecológica, told Mongabay via WhatsApp messages that the chemicals used for oil production are highly toxic to both the environment and human health. “Many of these are released into the environment…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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