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Ecuador: promoting the rights of nature
1 Fander Falconí, Presentation at the XVIII Meeting of the Forum of Environment
Ministers and First Meeting of the Latin American and Caribbean Community of
States, CELAC, Quito, 3 February, 2012.
2 Constitution of Ecuador, Art. 275, Quito, 2008.
3 Constitution of Ecuador, Art. 71, Quito, 2008.
4 Ministerio Coordinador de Patrimonio, Yasuní-ITT, Una Iniciativa para Cambiar la
Historia, Quito, 2010.
5 Ministerio del Ambiente. Mapa del Patrimonio de Áreas Naturales del Estado (PANE).
Quito. 2011.
6 Ministerio del Ambiente. Manual Práctico. Rendición de cuentas del plan de inversión
de los socios comunitarios del Programa Socio Bosque. Quito. 2011.
7 Banco Central del Ecuador. Evolución de la economía ecuatoriana. Quito. 2009.
8 Secretaría Nacional de Planificación, SENPLADES, Evaluación del Plan Nacional
para el Buen Vivir. Quito. 2012.
Establishing Earth-based governance for the rights of the environment
1 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Climate Change 2007, Synthesis
Report: An Assessment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, p. 30.
Geneva, Switzerland, 2007. Available from
report/ar4/syr/ar4_syr.pdf.
2 Ibid, p. 39.
3 International Energy Agency, World Energy Outlook 2011 Executive Summary,
p. 2 (November 2011). Available from
weo2011sum.pdf.
4 United States Defense Intelligence Agency. Global Water Security: Intelligence
Community Assessment. 2 February 2012/ Available from
nic/ICA_Global%20Water%20Security.pdf.
5 UNEP. Towards a Green Economy: Pathways to Sustainable Development and
Poverty Eradication (2011). Available from
6 The European Commission has called for new levels of emissions cuts of 40 per
cent by 2030 and 60 per cent by 2040 (as compared with 1990 levels). European
Commission, A roadmap for moving to a competitive low carbon economy in
2050, p. 4. Brussels, 8 March, 2011. Available from
LexUriServ :2011:0112:FIN:EN:PDF.
7 Ewa Krukowska. EU Ministers to Discuss CO2 Market Future after Price Slump.
Bloomberg Businessweek. 3 April, 2012. Available from
com/news/2012-04-03/eu-ministers-to-discuss-co2-market-future-after-price-
slump.
8 United Nations. Rio Declaration on Environment and Development (1991).
Available from
htm.
9 Rights of Nature. Constitución de la República del Ecuador, Title II, Ch. 7
(Sept. 2008). Available from
constitucion_de_bolsillo.pdf.
See also the Preamble to the Constitution, celebrating and recognizing human
dependence and interconnections with Nature, or Pachamama (Celebrando a
la naturaleza, la Pacha Mama, de la que somos parte y que es vital para nuestra
existencia).
10 Ibid, Art. 71 (with Google Translator). See also Art. 10, stating that Nature is a
subject of rights in the Constitution.
11 Ibid, Art. 72 (with Google Translator).
12 Ibid, Art. 71 (with Google Translator).
13 Vilcabamba River v. Provincial Government of Loja, Provincial Justice Court of
Loja, No. 11121-2011-10 (March 30, 2011), available from: http://earthlawcenter.
org/static/uploads/documents/Vilcambamba_River_Decision_3_31_11.pdf. See
also summary in English of decision at:
ecuador/.
14 Gabriela León Cobo, Pachamama Foundation. News bulletin on the
implementation of the first nature rights sentence (March 2012). Available from
15 Application Filed by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights with the
Inter-American Court of Human Rights against the Republic of Ecuador: Case
12,465, Kichwa People of Sarayaku and Its Members. Inter-American Court of
Human Rights, Washington, D.C., April 2010. Available from .
org/demandas/12.465%20Sarayaku%20Ecuador%2026abr2010%20ENG.pdf.
16 World People’s Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother
Earth. Universal Declaration of the Rights of Mother Earth. Adopted 22 April
2010. Available from
17 United Nations, Department of Public Information. Press Conference by Bolivia’s
President on People’s Congress. New York, NY, May 7, 2010. Available from
; see also
for press conference video dated May 7,
2010.
18 General Assembly of the United Nations. Interactive Dialogue on Harmony with
Nature, April 2011. Available from
HarmonywithNature.html.
19 United Nations General Assembly. Report of the Secretary-General. Harmony
with Nature, A/66/302. 66th Session, August 15, 2011. Available from http://
pdf?OpenElement. The Report also discusses in detail the history of scholarship
and philosophy around the issue of the inherent rights of nature.
20 Pittsburgh Municipal Code, Title 6, Art. 1, Ch. 618, Marcellus Shale Natural
Gas Drilling (Nov. 2010). Available from
aspx?clientId=13525.
21 See See also
community/ for a map of organizations worldwide advancing actions that
recognize the rights of the natural world and humans’ interconnections with
it. This map also includes laws, constitutions, court cases, and international
agreements advancing legal rights for ecosystems and species.
Approaching harmony with nature
1 Madison, James (1818). Speech to the Agricultural Society of Albemarle VA, on
12 May.
2 For further information: Anna Lofdahl, Communications Office of the SEI In
Stockholm, Sweden.
3 International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources
(IUCN) in cooperation with UNEP and the WWF and in collaboration with FAO
and UNESCO, World Conservation Strategy: Living Resource Conservation for
Sustainable Development, 1980.
4 General Assembly, Resolution 37/7, 28 October 1982, World Charter for Nature,
adopted by a vote of 111-1-18.
5 Ibid, second and third paragraphs of the Introduction, Titles of Parts I,II and III and
paragraph 1 of Part I.
6 These texts were the United Nations Millennium Declaration (resolution 55/2 of
8 September 2000) and the 2005 World Summit Outcome (resolution 60/1 of 16
September 2005). Neither the United Nations Conference on Environment and
Development and its follow-up in Johannesburg, nor the major policy- setting texts
adopted by the United Nations on the eve of the twenty-first century, give much
attention to the philosophical and spiritual roots of relations between humanity
and nature.
7 General Assembly Resolution 60/192 of 22 December 2005.
8 General Assembly Resolution 63/278 of 22 April 2009.
9 General Assembly Resolution 64/196 of 21 December 2009.
10 Ibid, preambular paragraphs and paragraph 1.
11 General Assembly Resolutions 65/164 of 20 December 2010 and 66/204 of 22
December 2011.
12 United Nations, Harmony with Nature, Report of the Secretary General, 19 August
2010, A/65/314, and United Nations, Harmony with Nature, Report of the Secretary
General, 15 August 2011. For texts and videos of the Dialogues go to: Interactive
Dialogue of the General Assembly on Harmony With Nature, 20 Apr 2011 to 20
Apr 2011, available from
=252&type=13&menu=23; Interactive Dialogue of the General Assembly on
Harmony With Nature, Scientific findings on the impacts of human activities on the
functioning of the Earth System, 18 Apr 2012, available from
rio20/index.php?page=view&nr=840&type=13&menu=23.
13 Havel, Vaclav (2002). The Challenge of the World. Is There a Purpose in Nature?
How to Navigate Between the Scylla of Mechanism and the Charybdis of
Teleology. Ed. Ivan Havel and Anton Markos, Prague: Vesmir, vol. 11.
14 Maeterlinck, Maurice.The Blue Bird: A Fairy Play in Six Acts. Middlesex TW118HH:
The Echo Library, 2006. Original version published in translation in 1910; and
The Life of the Bee. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, 2006. First published in 1901.
Maeterlinck was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1911.
15 Tolkien, J.R.R. (1966).On Fairy Stories. The Tolkien Reader, New York: Ballantine Books.
Notes and References
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