Yasuni National Park

Ecuador is trying to salvage its campaign to enlist international sponsors to protect a pristine nature reserve in the Amazon, after an initial drive ended in disarray and doubts about whether President Rafael Correa would leave the park's oil riches untouched. Correa recently appointed former Foreign Minister Maria Fernanda Espinosa to head a new panel to seek donations from Arab and Asian countries for the 2.4-million-acre Yasuni National Park, one of the world's most biodiverse nature reserves.

What is a barrel of oil worth? Generally, the answer depends on a number of factors, including the mood of the commodities markets, the grade of the oil and demand at the gas pump. The basic assumption, however, is that the oil has a value because it eventually will be available for use. But in a historic move, Ecuador is asking the world to put a dollar figure on oil that will not be used — oil it intends to protect from excavation. On Tuesday, Ecuador and the United Nations Development Programme began soliciting donations for a trust fund that would remunerate the country if it forgoes drilling in a pristine portion of its Amazon rain forest for 10 years.

What is a barrel of oil worth? Generally, the answer depends on a number of factors, including the mood of the commodities markets, the grade of the oil and demand at the gas pump. The basic assumption, however, is that the oil has a value because it eventually will be available for use. But in a historic move, Ecuador is asking the world to put a dollar figure on oil that will not be used — oil it intends to protect from excavation. On Tuesday, Ecuador and the United Nations Development Programme began soliciting donations for a trust fund that would remunerate the country if it forgoes drilling in a pristine portion of its Amazon rain forest for 10 years.

Ecuador is trying to salvage its campaign to enlist international sponsors to protect a pristine nature reserve in the Amazon, after an initial drive ended in disarray and doubts about whether President Rafael Correa would leave the park's oil riches untouched. Correa recently appointed former Foreign Minister Maria Fernanda Espinosa to head a new panel to seek donations from Arab and Asian countries for the 2.4-million-acre Yasuni National Park, one of the world's most biodiverse nature reserves.

Five American missionaries flew into Ecuador's Amazon jungle 38 years ago in a yellow Piper. A week later they were all dead, speared by primitive Indians who believed they were cannibals. The Huaorani Indians demolished the single-engine plane on a small landing strip on the Curaray River that the Protestant missionaries had code-named Palm Beach. Days after the Jan. 8, 1956, killings, another missionary flying over the site saw no traces of the plane.

Like the waters cascading from the Andes Mountains, problems and hopes are pouring downstream into the Amazon jungle basin from the highlands that give life to the world's mightiest river. All along an immense crescent from Venezuela through Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia, covering a distance of more than 3,000 miles, the Amazon finds its strength. Nearly one-third of the Amazon Basin lies in the rim of Latin American countries surrounding Brazil.