This archive collects solutions-journalism stories tied to Ecuador — covering environmental protection, community initiatives, policy wins, and other documented progress. Each entry highlights a specific milestone or development worth knowing about.
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.
Indigenous land protection at this scale is rare — and this story shows what’s possible when communities lead the way. Four Indigenous nationalities in Ecuador’s Morona Santiago province spent more than a year in community-led consultations before a single boundary was drawn. The resulting reserve connects to protected areas across eastern Ecuador and northern Peru, giving jaguars, tapirs, and thousands of bird species room to move and survive. When Indigenous communities hold legal authority over their own land, forests stand a far better chance — and that’s a model the world needs more of.
Ecuador’s National System of Protected Areas now includes the 13,583-acre ancestral Tiwi Nunka Forest in the country’s south.
Fisheries transparency just gained a major foothold in Latin America: Ecuador has become the first country in the region to join the Fisheries Transparency Initiative, pledging to publish vessel records, catch data, subsidies, and the identities of who ultimately profits. The commitment was announced in Manta, home to much of the country’s tuna fleet, and it opens a door that journalists and even government scientists have spent years knocking on without answer. A new national working group will bring civil society and industry to the table alongside officials, with annual independent reviews to keep progress honest. For oceans worldwide, where opacity has long shielded overfishing and illegal catch, Ecuador’s step offers a replicable model — and a reminder that sunlight remains one of conservation’s most powerful tools.
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.
Intesa’s exclusion covers all financial products and services, as well as advisory services, and applies to projects and companies involved in exploration, production, and pipeline transport of Amazon oil.
The initiative involves more than 40 partners, ranging from local NGOs to governments to international organizations, leveraging decades of collective experience working across the archipelago.
