Ecuador | Good News For Humankind

Nine nations commit to recognizing 395 million acres of Indigenous land by 2030

By Peter Schulte / November 12, 2025 / Good News For Humankind

A landmark international coalition has committed to formally recognizing 395 million acres of Indigenous and traditional community lands worldwide. The nine countries making this pledge are Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Gabon, Guatemala, the Republic of Congo, Peru, and Venezuela. This massive commitment to land tenure security empowers millions of Indigenous and local people to be the primary stewards of their ancestral territories, ensuring the permanent protection of globally vital carbon sinks and biodiversity hotspots.

Ecuador’s coastal ecosystems have rights, constitutional court rules

By Peter Schulte / January 17, 2025 / Good news links

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 time that Ecuador has established legal rights for nature. In fact, Ecuador was the first country in the world to establish that nature held legal rights, Earth.org reported.

Ecuador river is granted the right to not be polluted in historic court case

By Peter Schulte / July 8, 2024 / Good news links

An Ecuadorian court has ruled that pollution has violated the rights of the Machángara River, which runs through the capital of Quito. In some parts of Latin America and North America, inhabitants have constitutional rights to a clean environment, but Ecuador is one of the few countries that recognize the right of natural features not to be degraded or polluted.

Plastic-choked rivers in Ecuador are being cleared with conveyor belts

By Peter Schulte / April 22, 2024 / Good news links

Created by the tech start-up Ichthion, the Azure system’s simple design has the capacity to stop and collect around 80 tonnes of plastic per day. The Azure system is a boom device that stretches across the river to stop objects floating on the surface. It extends two feet down into the water, allowing fish and other organisms to move freely below and is placed at an angle allowing the natural water flow to direct all debris into one corner of the riverbank.

11 countries sign global pact to protect endangered river dolphins

By Peter Schulte / January 15, 2024 / Good news links

Since the 1980s, the combined populations of river dolphin species have plummeted by 73%. With the Global Declaration for River Dolphins, 14 countries are expected to join forces to protect six surviving species. So far, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Brazil, Cambodia, Colombia, Ecuador, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Peru, and Venezuela have signed the declaration.

Historic ruling in Ecuador returns ownership of ancestral land to the Siekopai people

By Peter Schulte / December 17, 2023 / Good news links

For the first time, Ecuador has recognized an Indigenous population’s right to “possess a territory that has been declared a protected area.” Indigenous advocates hope this ruling can serve as a precedent for other Indigenous communities that are trying to regain control of their land.

Ecuadorians vote against oil drilling in critical Amazon biosphere

By Peter Schulte / August 24, 2023 / Good news links

The referendum was a popular initiative demanded by Indigenous communities to protect the vast Yasuní National Park from oil drilling. Ecuador’s government has announced that it will honor the result of the referendum and have machinery removed within a year.