Ecuador boosts jungle protections QUITO, Ecuador (AP) - Ecuador declared a swath of the Amazon jungle twice the size of the state of Delaware off limits to oil drilling, mining, lumbering and colonization. Ecuador's President Jamil Mahuad's Friday decree strengthened legislation controlling the economic exploitation of the Cuyabeno-Imuya and Yasuni national parks, which together total 2.7 million acres. The decree blocks planned oil exploration in the Cuyabeno-Imuya park that had angered Ecuador's environmental groups. The two parks, located close together, are near Ecuador's borders with Peru and Colombia and contain a vast system of environmentally sensitive rivers and lakes, ecologists say. See full story <http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2558255053-c6c>
