Orellana Ecuador
In 2013, the Yasunidos collective and others launched a referendum initiative to allow citizens to decide whether the oil in Block 43-ITT (Ishpingo, Tambococha, and Tiputini) should remain indefinitely beneath Yasuní National Park. The process was plagued by administrative disputes related to signature validation and the actions of electoral authorities, preventing the referendum from taking place for nearly a decade. Later, in 2021, with a newly constituted Constitutional Court, the case was reviewed, and the Court ruled that the Electoral Tribunal's decision to shelve the referendum violated the right to due process and the requirement of a reasoned decision (Judgment No. 348-20-EP/21). With this ruling, the Electoral Tribunal determined that the Yasuní collective had fulfilled the signature requirement.
The Constitutional Court determined that the proposed referendum met the constitutional and legal requirements to be submitted to a citizen vote (democratic legitimacy and freedom of the voter); and authorized the holding of the referendum on Yasuní.
The referendum was held on August 20, 2023. The "Yes" option received 58.95% of the valid votes, while the "No" option received 41.05%. With this result, the public decided that the oil in Block 43-ITT would remain underground indefinitely. The National Electoral Council officially announced the results after the national count.
The popular vote was binding. In accordance with Constitutional Court ruling 6-22-CP/23 and the call for a referendum issued by the National Electoral Council, the State was required to progressively cease all oil extraction activities in Block 43-ITT, and this withdrawal was to be carried out in an orderly and gradual manner, avoiding unnecessary environmental, social, and economic risks. The Constitutional Court specified that the deadline for implementing the popular mandate was August 31, 2024, granting the State one year to complete the progressive closure of operations.
Simultaneously, at the Inter-American level, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights issued a ruling declaring the violation of the rights of the Tagaeri and Taromenane, Indigenous peoples living in isolation in areas where oil is being extracted. Among the Court's decisions, it ordered the Ecuadorian State, as a form of effective reparation, to comply with the 2023 referendum.
Currently, the government is disregarding the popular will and the ruling of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, and more than 200 oil wells are being exploited.
Implementation
On May 10, 2024, delegates from the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (Conaie), the Yasunidos and the Alliance for Human Rights delivered letters to the Constitutional Court to initiate the monitoring of the ruling that orders the halting of oil exploitation and the progressive withdrawal of oil wells.
On November 12, 2025, the Yasunidos collective filed a lawsuit for non-compliance against the Government of Daniel Noboa in Ecuador, before the Constitutional Court, alleging that the closure of the wells of the ITT oil field has not been fulfilled.
Although the Yasuní-ITT case was not originally framed as a climate dispute in the strict sense, but rather as a case of citizen participation, the rights of nature, and environmental protection, it contains multiple climate-related elements that make it one of the most relevant precedents for climate constitutionalism in Latin America. Its importance lies in the fact that the judicial decision and, subsequently, the popular referendum, have direct effects on climate change mitigation, as the referendum seeks to keep the oil in Block 43-ITT indefinitely underground. By preventing its extraction, the release of large quantities of carbon dioxide (CO₂) and other greenhouse gases is also avoided.
- Yasunidos
- Ecological Action
Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (Co
- Ecuadorian State.
Yasuní National Park is located in the eastern Amazon region of Ecuador, in the provinces of Orellana and Pastaza, near the border with Peru. It is one of the most ecologically and culturally important territories on the planet, due to the convergence of exceptional biodiversity, significant hydrocarbon reserves, and the presence of Indigenous peoples, including those living in voluntary isolation.
The territorial context of Yasuní cannot be understood solely from an ecological perspective. The park also constitutes an ancestral territory occupied by various indigenous peoples. Among them are the Waorani people and the Tagaeri and Taromenane peoples living in voluntary isolation, recognized by the Ecuadorian Constitution.
To protect these communities, the State created the Tagaeri-Taromenane Intangible Zone (ZITT), where extractive activities are prohibited due to the particular vulnerability of these peoples and the State's duty to guarantee their physical and cultural survival. However, some of Ecuador's most important oil reserves lie beneath Yasuní.
International agreements/treaties
- Paris Agreement
- ILO Convention 169
- American Convention on Human Rights
- Escazú Agreement
National laws
- Organic Law of Jurisdictional Guarantees and Constitutional Control (LOGJCC)
- Constitution of the Republic of Ecuador (2008)