Ecuador First to Grant Nature Constitutional Rights
Abstract
On September 28, 2008, the people of Ecuador voted overwhelmingly for a new constitution that gives nature—its mountains, rivers, forests, air, and islands—legally enforceable rights to “exist, flourish and evolve.” It is the first country in the world to do so. The measure is part of an effort to level the legal playing field against multinational corporations that, armed with enormous financial resources and the force of international law written in their favor, scour the earth looking for cheap resources. Ecuador has a long history of exploitation by corporations engaged in banana growing, natural gas extraction and oil drilling, leaving little but pollution and poverty in their wake. The country is currently involved in a 15-year-long legal battle against the U.S. oil multinational, Chevron. The company is accused of dumping billions of gallons of crude oil and toxic waste into the Amazonian jungle over two decades, resulting in high rates of cancer and child leukemia in people living near the drilling sites. At the instigation of the Pachamama Alliance, a San Francisco-based citizen organization dedicated to preserving the earth's tropical rainforests by empowering local indigenous people, the Ecuadorian Constituent Assembly asked the Pennsylvania-based Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund