Ecuador's bold idea now as endangered as Eden's wildlife

A plan to preserve the most biodiverse region on earth from oil exploitation is foundering as enthusiasm cools.

In their first hour in Yasuni's Amazonian forest, many people will see more creatures than they have in their lives, including some that have yet to be documented by science. To paddle up the Ayango creek, which leads from the traffic and pollution of the Napo River into the most biodiverse region on earth, is to encounter a wall of noise, bursts of colour and unimaginable combinations of life.

A tiger heron flaps lazily past our canoe, electric blue Morpho butterflies jolt the eye, spiders the size of a man's hand sit on branches and kingfishers flash past. On a mud bank, a lizard suns itself, while high up in the tree canopy, flying monkeys dart amid the grunting of hoatzin ''stinky turkeys'' - prehistoric survivors with claws that grow into wings that could have inspired the flying creatures of Avatar...........

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