“I realized then that we needed to bolster our conservation efforts with good, credible science if we were to have any chance of saving Yasuni,” says Romo. Over the past decade, he and more than 50 other biologists working in the area have documented Yasuni’s remarkable biodiversity, providing evidence that its forest has the highest number of species on the planet, including an unprecedented core where there are overlapping world richness records for amphibians, reptiles, bats, and trees… Read article

“I realized then that we needed to bolster our conservation efforts with good, credible science if we were to have any chance of saving Yasuni,” says Romo. Over the past decade, he and more than 50 other biologists working in the area have documented Yasuni’s remarkable biodiversity, providing evidence that its forest has the highest number of species on the planet, including an unprecedented core where there are overlapping world richness records for amphibians, reptiles, bats, and trees…

The biggest uncertainty remains funding. If $100 million isn’t paid into the United Nations fund by December 2011, Ecuador can refund any contributions—and analysts say Correa will then surely move to develop Yasuni’s oil fields. Although he’s nervous about whether the international community will fill the trust fund, Romo says he believes that the Yasuni researchers have so far succeeded in a way that cannot be ignored, providing justification for the region’s continued conservation. “What caught the world’s attention is the science,” says Romo. “But the clock is running and we cannot get distracted.”… Read article here

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