The Constitutional Court of Ecuador has determined that coastal marine ecosystems have rights of nature, including the right to “integral respect for its existence and for the maintenance and regeneration of its life cycles, structure, functions and evolutionary processes,” per Chapter 7, Articles 71 to 74 in the country’s constitution. This is not the first […]
The highest court in Ecuador has ruled in favor of wild animals. A case for Estrellita, a woolly monkey taken from the wild and kept as a pet, is the first case to apply the country’s “rights of nature” law to animals. Ana Beatriz Burbano Proaño, a librarian, kept Estrellita as a pet for 18 […]
A pipeline has ruptured in the Ecuadorian Amazon near the site of a previous oil spill, contaminating waterways in Indigenous territory and threatening wildlife in a protected area. The spill has impacted almost five acres of a nature reserve in Cayambe-Coca National Park and polluted the Coca River, Deutsche Welle reported. Ecuador’s Environmental Ministry called […]
A volcanic mountain landscape with lava plateaus and white coral sand beaches rimmed with blue-green sea, the Galápagos archipelago is inhabited by more than 180 species found nowhere else on Earth. The first recorded visitor to the group of islands was Tomás de Berlanga, fourth Bishop of Panama, who happened upon it on his way […]
By Alejandro Pérez, translated by Romina Castagnino Fifteen years ago, Martha Valencia relied on the nearby river for water and for food. But then oil palm crops arrived in the area and polluted the river, say Martha and her neighbors. The community took the oil palm grower to court, which ultimately resulted in a ruling […]
By Reynard Loki On Feb. 27, hundreds of Indigenous Waorani elders, youth and leaders arrived in the city of Puyo, Ecuador. They left their homes deep in the Amazon rainforest to peacefully march through the streets, hold banners, sing songs and, most importantly, submit documents to the provincial Judicial Council to launch a lawsuit seeking […]
By Genevieve Belmaker and Joseph Charpentier Throughout 2018, forests continued to be threatened and destroyed. From the Amazon, to the Congo Basin, to the Mekong Delta and scores of places in between—journalists reporting for Mongabay filed hundreds of stories about the world’s forests. Although the significance of any one story is difficult to gauge in […]
By Valeria Sorgato On Jan. 23, a new national park joined Ecuador’s 54 protected areas. Río Negro-Sopladora National Park lies in southern Ecuador’s Morona Santiago and Azuay provinces within the Cordillera Real Oriental mountain range and next to Sangay National Park. The area is dominated by almost-intact Andean páramos—treeless alpine plateaus—and forests that are home […]
Amazon Watch stands with Ecuadorian communities in rejecting a misguided judgment delaying justice for some 30,000 indigenous people and farmers who continue to suffer from the company’s toxic legacy in the Amazon rainforest. The decision—handed down yesterday by New York District Court Judge Lewis Kaplan—also underscores the threat that well-financed corporations pose to justice and the rule […]
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