The Effort to Strengthen Ecuador’s Rights of Nature Laws
Earth Law Center’s Environmental and Forest Policy Expert, Carla Cardenas, a leader in advocating for a broader application of Rights of Nature in Ecuador, has filed a proposal for legislative reform with Ecuador’s National Assembly to strengthen Ecuador’s laws protecting nature’s rights.
Ecuador is one of the few nations in the world that has Rights of Nature written into its very constitution, and has often been cited in the earth law movement as a model of forward-thinking reform. However, recent events draw attention to the fact that while Ecuador’s constitution may be progressive, more work remains to align legal code and administrative procedures with those constitutional principles.
What’s In a Name?
Despite the protections laid out in Ecuador’s constitution, there’s been an incursion of mining concessions that cut into the heart of invaluable forests such as Los Cedros and Nangaritza, and seem to violate these principles. Both Los Cedros and Nangaritza forests are categorized as Protected Forests under law, but the mining concessions reveal that there’s still room for environmental exploitation. The conundrum lies, as it so often does in legal matters, in a subtle problem of classification. While the constitution lays out the protections described above, and specifically proscribes extractive activities within protected areas, Los Cedros and Nangaritza are classified as protected forests—not protected areas.
Ecuador’s Environmental Organic Code (COA) establishes the National System of Protected Areas, or SNAP, which includes national parks, wildlife refuges, wildlife production reserves, national recreation areas, and marine reserves. Protected forests are described and established in a separate article of the environmental code, but notably do not receive the same protections from extractive industry. As a result, these remarkable, uniquely biodiverse ecosystems are vulnerable.
How We’re Fighting Back
The Constitutional Court of Ecuador is currently considering the mining concessions in both Los Cedros and Nangaritza protected forests, cases in which the Earth Law Center, along with partner organizations, have filed amicus curiae, though it’s unclear when the court will reach a decision.
In the meantime, alongside organizations CEDENMA, Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature (GARN), and International Rivers, Cardenas has filed a petition for legislative reform with Ecuador’s National Assembly. The proposed reform to legislation would include protected forests as well as other sensitive areas in the SNAP designation and ensure that no mining can occur in these designated areas. It also calls for clear and enforceable sanctions for violations of forest protections, as there are currently none written into the Environmental Organic Code—another loophole Cardenas is eager to see closed.
Cardenas had the good fortune to be present in Ecuador and was able to present her case in person to the National Assembly’s Biodiversity Commission in a plenary session. Cardenas and international partners shared their analysis of the legal misalignment between Ecuador’s environmental code and its constitution, and laid out their proposed legislative fix that would ensure protection of the rights of forests, water sources, animals, and mangroves, among others.
While the timeline for implementing into law the proposed reforms is unclear, Cardenas is optimistic, and notes that it was a unique, first-time opportunity to present directly to representatives of the National Assembly.
Both the court cases and the proposed legislative reforms would create a clearer delineation of Rights of Nature, making it more practicable, enforceable, and free of loopholes. If passed, the legislation will take the principles laid out in Ecuador’s world-leading declaration of Rights of Nature within its constitution and make them a reality on the ground. A hugely important step, as more and more localities and nations consider the framework Ecuador has created.
What You Can Do
While the proposed legislative reforms are under consideration and the Los Cedros and Nangaritza forest mining concessions are scrutinized in Ecuador’s courts, and there is no clear timeline for the results of these key decisions, there is more to be done than simply sitting and waiting. Even those who aren’t citizens or have no direct ties to Ecuador can send letters to the national assembly or constitutional court, letting decision-makers know that these issues matter, that the world is watching, and that there is real opportunity here to set an important precedent on the international stage.
In the meantime, Cardenas will continue to work alongside other organizations, including CEDENMA, to push for these and other important reforms to Ecuador’s legal system, ensuring that irreplaceable and invaluable areas like these forests are protected and preserved.
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