Defenders of Yasuní National Park in the Ecuadorian Amazon, one of the most biologically diverse places on the planet, have two new reasons to hope that oil drilling in the region could be imminently curtailed.

A recent Ecuadorian court decision may revive a major civil society effort to prevent drilling in the park. After eight years, the court finally ruled that 750,000 signatures gathered by the Yasunidos collective in 2014 to force a national referendum on the issue were valid, reversing previous decisions that subverted the will of voters.

The decision means that ballots in next February's election should include the question, “Do you agree that the Ecuadorian government should keep the ITT oil fields, known as Block 43, indefinitely in the ground?” A yes vote could bring an abrupt end to drilling in the park.

Additionally, a case now before the Inter-American Court on Human Rights on the impacts of extraction on isolated Indigenous peoples who live there could redraw the boundaries of the current no-go zone, further restricting drilling activity.