Yasuní-ITT Initiative, Yasuni National Park

The Yasuní-ITT Initiative was a project that attempted to keep over a billion barrels of oil in the ground under the Yasuni National Park, a biosphere reserve in the Ecuadorian Amazon. The initiative was launched in 2007 by president Rafael Correa which offered a perpetual suspension of oil extraction in part of the Yasuni National Park called Ishpingo-Tambococha-Tiputini in return for payments of $3.6 billion from the international community. It envisioned the transition to a sustainable economy, using the funds to create jobs in such sectors as renewable energy while respecting the region's biodiversity and social equality. However by 2012 only $200 million had been pledged and by 2013 the plan had abandoned and drilling started in 2016. ()