One of the most ambitious global ecology schemes put forward to date has suddenly come crashing down as the proponents of it are massively let down with promises broken by many of the world’s leading nations.

The proposal in question was put by Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa, who had planned to persuade rich countries to pay Ecuador not to drill for oil in a pristine Amazon rainforest.

Environmentalists had hailed the initiative when Correa first proposed it in 2007, saying he was setting a precedent in the fight against global warming by lowering the high cost to poor countries of preserving the environment.

"The world has failed us," Correa said in a nationally televised speech. He said the global recession was in part responsible but chiefly blamed "the great hypocrisy" of nations who emit most of the world's greenhouse gases.

"It was not charity that we sought from the international community, but co-responsibility in the face of climate change." He is right. He had sought some €3 billion to maintain a moratorium on drilling in the remote Yasuni National Park, which was declared a biosphere reserve by the United Nations in 1989 and is home to two Indian tribes living in voluntary isolation.

But he said that Ecuador had raised just €10 million in actual donations in pledges and that he had an obligation to his people, particularly the poor, to move ahead with drilling. Only the UN and private donors had put up the cash. Not one single government had made food on its pledges.

His no-drilling plan had envisioned rich countries paying Ecuador half the €6 billion in revenues expected to be generated over 10 years from the 846 million barrels of heavy crude estimated to be in Yasuni.

Not drilling in the reserve would keep 410 million metric tons of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere, officials had said during their global lobbying campaign that included organizing tours of the reserve for journalists.

But while Correa's proposal generated interest, there were few takers. European countries expressed the most interest but did not follow through balked. Ecuador is an OPEC member that depends on oil for a third of its national budget. The three oil fields in Yasuni represent 20 % of its oil reserves.

Despite championing the project, Correa is not perceived domestically as much of an environmentalist. He has also upset indigenous groups with plans to develop major mining projects for the first time.

Indigenous and environmental groups in Ecuador, a nation of 14 million people, have said that any decision on the fate of Yasuni should be made in a national referendum.

Yasuni is not the only oil drilling that Correa's government plans in the rainforest. He is also seeking to auction oil concessions in 13 blocks of 770 square miles each south of Yasuni closer to the border with Peru.

Oil is Ecuador's chief source of foreign earnings. The country produces 538,000 barrels of crude a day, delivering nearly half its production to the United States.