ENVIRONMENT NEWS -

 

ECUADOR TO SELL THIRD OF ITS AMAZON FOREST TO OIL COMPANIES

 

 Contrary to the law, indigenous people have not been consulted about it

Ecuador is planning to auction off three million of the country's 8.1 million hectares of pristine Amazonian rainforest to Chinese oil companies, The Guardian reports.

 

A DEBT ISSUE - Ecuador owed China more than $7 billion — more than a tenth of its GDP — as of last summer.  In 2009 China began loaning Ecuador billions of dollars in exchange for oil shipments. It also helped fund two of the country's biggest hydroelectric infrastructure projects, and China National Petroleum Corp may soon have a 30 percent stake in a $10 billion oil refinery in Ecuador.

Read more:  http://www.businessinsider.com/ecuador-selling-its-rainforest-to-china-2013-3#ixzz2WH5VRJfr