Ecuador: Correa defends oil drilling in Yasuni National Park

laht.com reported Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa has defended his government’s plan to extract oil from the Yasuni National Park in the Amazon, and said that it will affect less than 200 hectares (494 acres) of the nearly 1 million hectares (2.5 million acres) of the natural reserve of high biodiversity.

According to the latest calculations, the surface that may be affected by oil extraction activities may be 0.2 per thousand or one in 5,000 hectares (12,300 acres).

Correa visited the area to check on the progress of the work being done and denied that the project is going to affect 18,000 hectares (44,000 acres), as claimed by groups opposed to the plan. Read Article

HOTELS AND LODGING IN ECUADOR