A provincial court recognized that the mining companies violated the communities’ constitutional right to consultation and the rights of nature guaranteed by Ecuador’s Constitution since 2008.
Since last August, thousands of Awá have been forcibly displaced or suffered threats, intimidation, torture or forced recruitment by organized crime groups participating in drug trafficking and illegal mining.
The Tarímiat Pujutaí Nuṉka Reserve of Andean and Amazonian forests in the Morona Santiago province of eastern Ecuador, where numerous Shuar and Achuar communities have for years been fending off numerous drivers of deforestation.
Ecuador’s National System of Protected Areas now includes the 13,583-acre ancestral Tiwi Nunka Forest in the country’s south.
Ecuador now must grant public access to information related to the management of the country’s marine resources to journalists, civil society groups and others.
The plan relies on curtailing dependence on oil and mining projects for economic development and implementing ancestral agroforestry systems and conservation projects.
The ruling will immediately affect oil and mining projects across the country, as they must now seek the consent of Indigenous communities who might be affected by their activities.
Ecuador’s constitutional court has blocked plans to mine copper and gold in Los Cedros, a protected cloud forest, ruling that the plans violate the rights of nature.
The current Galápagos Marine Reserve covers 133,000 square kilometers. The extension protects an additional 60,000 km2, protecting an important migration route for hammerhead sharks and leatherback turtles.
Panama, Ecuador, Colombia, and Costa Rica announced the Eastern Tropical Pacific Marine Corridor, a fishing-free corridor that will cover more than 200,000 square miles.
