Ecuador's Indigenous communities fight mining with nature's legal rights

In Ecuador, a growing legal movement is putting nature's rights at the centre of battles against mining and industrial projects. Since 2008, the country's constitution has recognised ecosystems as living entities with the right to exist and regenerate. Now, local communities and trained paraecologists are using science and traditional knowledge to defend their lands in court—often with success.

The fight has become urgent in places like Maikiuants, where a proposed copper mine threatens waterfalls, medicinal plants, and endangered species. For the 480 residents there, protecting the forest means protecting their own survival.

Ecuador's 2008 constitutional change gave nature legal standing, forcing courts to weigh the rights of rivers, forests, and wildlife against industrial projects. Judges have since blocked major ventures, including mining operations, by ruling in favour of ecosystems. A former judge noted that these decisions set powerful precedents, reinforcing nature's legal protections.

On the ground, groups like Ecoforensic are training paraecologists—local experts who gather court-admissible evidence. Jhostin Antún and Olger Kitiar, two such paraecologists, combine scientific methods with Indigenous knowledge to document their homelands. In 2023, their work in the Intag Valley helped stop a proposed mega copper mine by proving threats to endangered species. In Maikiuants, the stakes are equally high. Olger Kitiar, a Shuar native, recently found a fresh jaguar track deeper in the rainforest than any recorded before. The print, larger than one captured by a camera trap last October, suggested a male jaguar—a rare and protected species. Yet the area faces a new threat: Solaris Resources plans an open-pit copper mine that could destroy the same forests these animals depend on. For Maikiuants' residents, the struggle is personal. Their territory holds not just wildlife but centuries of Indigenous knowledge and survival. Stopping the mine isn't just about conservation—it's about their right to live as they always have, in balance with the land.

The clashes between nature's rights and industrial demands are sharpening in Ecuador, where cash-strapped governments often clash with conservation laws. Legal victories have shown that evidence collected by paraecologists can halt harmful projects. But as mining companies push forward, communities like Maikiuants must keep proving that protecting nature is the same as protecting themselves.