Ecuador votes to ban oil drilling in part of Amazon, mining outside Quito

A ban on oil development in part of the Yasuni Amazon reserve passed with just under 59% approval, with nearly all votes counted. A ban on mining in the Choco Andino forest near Quito has 68% support.

The Yasuni vote - which gives state oil company Petroecuador a year to shutter production in the 43-ITT block - is set to result in the loss of about 12% of Ecuador's 480,000-barrel-per-day (bpd) crude oil output.

Petroecuador said in a statement on social media that it would carry out the actions necessary to comply with voters' decision.

The company has previously said a "yes" would cost Ecuador $13.8-billion in income over the next two decades.

The Yasuni ban will lead to a 1.9% reduction in projected economic growth between this year and 2026, the central bank predicted last week.

Two other Petroecuador blocks in the area are unaffected.

"We will follow up so the government respects the decision of the Ecuadorean people," Juan Bay, president of the Waorani Indigenous community, told a press conference in Quito. "We have saved the greatest biodiversity and we have saved the communities in voluntary isolation."

The uncontacted communities are the Tagaeri, Taromenane and Dugakaeri, according to Indigenous leaders and environmental groups.

"We will continue to triumph because the fight is not just today but years-long," said Ene Nenquimo, also a Waorani leader, who added that behind the victory were years of pain felt by Indigenous communities.

The "yes" victory sends a message to investors "including major U.S. banks and asset managers, that the era of unchecked resource extraction is at an end," said Kevin Koenig, of advocacy group Amazon Watch.

The ban could cost the country not just in lost income but in indemnity payments to companies, presidential hopeful Luisa Gonzalez, who led voting tallies in a first round on Sunday, told local radio.

"Those indemnifications could cost $15 billion," she said on Punto Noticias on Monday afternoon, adding the country is already hard-pressed to cover health, education and other costs. "We need to review to see how we'll get out, what contracts there are, how they will close. It's a complicated scenario."

A single hectare of the Yasuni has 650 species of trees, as well as hundreds of species of animals, according to the environment ministry.

Both oil and mining guilds have said their industries are needed to shore up the battered economy and that bans would expose the areas to illegal mining and deforestation.

The local Quito referendum will scupper six gold concessions.

Ecuador's Chamber of Mining has said opposition to mining nationwide is blocking about $1-billion in potential investment for the next two years.

Mining was the country's fourth-largest source of income last year, behind sales of oil, bananas and shrimp, bringing in $2.8-billion.

(Reporting by Alexandra Valencia and Julia Symmes Cobb; Additional repoting by Gloria Dickie in London; Editing by Lisa Shumaker.)