A view of the jungle in the Ecuadorean Yasuni National Park, Orellana province, Ecuador, on Nov. 9, 2012.

(PABLO COZZAGLIO/AFP/Getty Images)

In a move that has angered local tribes and environmental activists, Ecuador plans to sell more than a third of its rainforests to Chinese oil companies.

The country's Amazonian rainforest – slightly larger than the total area of South Carolina –according to a 2008 study published in PLOS ONE. The reason for this sale is twofold: Ecuador owes China billions of dollars in debt, and the country's rainforests are rich in oil reserves, the report added.

As of last summer, Ecuador , Reuters said. That's more than 10 percent of the country's GDP, and it gave Chinese oil companies the ability to bargain their way into those useful rainforests.

"My understanding is that this is more of a debt issue – it's because the Ecuadoreans are so dependent on the Chinese to finance their development that they're willing to compromise ," Adam Zuckerman, environmental worker at Amazon Watch, told the Guardian. "The message that they're trying to send to international investors is not in line with reality."

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The news is especially concerning to the seven indigenous tribes that live in the rainforest. The government is required to get permission from the tribes before doing any oil-related development on their land, but tribal leaders said in a news report that .

There's also the concern about what all this human interaction, construction and deforestation will do to these indigenous tribes. The study published in PLOS ONE suggested oil projects won't just destroy the homelands of these people– it could kill them, too.

"These peoples, so named due to their decision of avoiding contact with the outside world, inhabit remote parts of the western Amazon and are extremely vulnerable because they lack resistance or immunity from outsiders' diseases," the report said. "First contact results in high rates of morbidity and mortality, with mortality estimates ranging between a third and half of the population within the first several years."

And if Ecuador needs a case study in what could happen when the oil drilling begins, neighboring Peru could provide an example. In its northern Amazon rainforest, a state of emergency was declared in 2013 because the oil fields had polluted the area so badly that heavy metals , according to a separate Guardian report.

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