Ecuador court case: mining in the Ortega River basin

Summary

On 17 August 2026, an Ecuadorian court ruled that mining activities in the Ortega River basin violated the rights of nature of the Ortega River in the southern Ecuadorian Amazon, and found that mining operations proceeded without prior consultation and caused environmental damage, including heavy metal contamination in the river’s waters.

Background
On 15 April 2025, a protective action was filed on behalf of the Ortega River before the Multicompetent Civil Judicial Unit in Yantzaza Canton. The plaintiff was the Ortega River as a subject of rights in accordance with articles 71 and 88 of the Constitution of the Republic of Ecuador acting through the Ortega Alto Indigenous Community. The action was filed against the Attorney General’s Office, Ministry of Environment, Water and Ecological Transition, Mining Regulation and Control Agency, Ministry of Energy and Mines, as well as the Government of Yacuambi Canton (however the Judge excluded the Municipality from the lawsuit).

The community filed the action in defense of the rights of nature (Ortega River), and claimed that mining rights were issued without prior, free and informed consultation with the indigenous community settled in the area.

Constitutional Claim (p.4-5)
The plaintiffs alleged the violation of the following rights recognized in the Constitution of the Republic:
• Rights of Nature (Arts. 71, 72 and 73)
• Right to water (Arts. 12 and 318)
• Right to a healthy and ecologically balanced environment (Arts. 14 and 66)
• Collective right to prior, free and informed consultation (Art. 57 para. 7)

They argued that the Ortega River is a living ecosystem and a subject of rights, which is being severely affected and polluted by mining activities. The plaintiffs detailed, from a technical-scientific and environmental point of view, the alteration of the evolutionary and vital cycles of water (evaporation, condensation, precipitation, runoff, and infiltration), arguing that discharges, chemicals, and sand extraction have destroyed the riverbanks, tributaries, and the ecosystem connectivity that links protected areas such as Podocarpus and Sangay National Parks.

They invoked the constitutional jurisprudence of the Río Monjas (Judgment No. 2167-21-EP/21) and Los Cedros (Judgment No. 1149-19-JP/21) to argue that the rights of nature are autonomous and that the mere existence of a threat or risk of serious and irreversible damage is sufficient to apply the precautionary principle. It also cited Judgment 11-32/2025 of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.

The plaintiffs sought the following measures: (1) a declaration of the violation of the rights of nature of the Ortega River, the right to water, to a healthy environment, and to prior, free and informed consultation; (2) a judicial declaration recognizing the Ortega River and its tributaries as a subject of rights; (3) comprehensive ecological restoration of the watershed (reforestation, remediation of environmental liabilities and removal of accumulated sediments/sand) and the formulation of local public conservation policies under the responsibility of the Municipal Government of Yacuambi; (4) the designation of the board of the Ortega Alto Community, together with the Ombudsman’s Office, as guardians of the Ortega River.

First-Instance Ruling
The judge stated he “considers it imperative to emphasize that the constitutional protection of the right to water and the rights of nature requires material, physical, and on-site safeguarding of vital ecological structures, surpassing any formal or abstract interpretation of the law. Consequently, the presence of extractive activity, the use of heavy machinery, and the direct alteration of the riverbed, banks, and marginal protection zones of the Ortega River constitute a scenario of flagrant violation.” (p. 12, machine translated)

This decision is not an exercise in activism, but rather in strict constitutional justice. This ruling is based on the constitutional doctrine established in Judgment No. 1149-19-JP/21 (Los Cedros Case) of the Constitutional Court of Ecuador, which states: The Precautionary Principle is applied when there is a risk of irreversible damage to ecosystems. The Rights of Nature take precedence over economic interests. “Prior consultation is an essential and non-negotiable requirement for interventions in ancestral territories.” (p. 15)

On 17 August 2026, the court accepted the Protection Action and ordered the immediate suspension of all mining activity in the Ortega River basin. Applying the principle of in dubio pro natura (when in doubt, rule in favor of nature), the court ordered the Ministry of Environment and Energy to revoke 17 mining concessions and annual mining titles in the Ortega River basin within 10 days. It also ordered the removal of mining machinery within 72 hours, environmental restoration measures, and appointed the Ortega Alto Community as guardian of the Ortega River, giving the community the responsibility to monitor, protect, and guide the river’s ecological recovery. (p. 11) In its capacity as guardian of the Ortega River, the community must prepare and submit, with the technical assistance of the Ombudsman’s Office, semi-annual reports of community monitoring and verification regarding compliance with the cessation of mining.

This is a first-instance court, not a provincial appeals court. It sits below the Provincial Court of Zamora Chinchipe. An appeal was filed on August 21, 2026 and the case sent to the Provincial Court of Zamora Chinchipe.

Ecological and Community Context
The Ortega River basin is a vital water source that supplies the indigenous community of Ortega Alto and surrounding areas. The Ortega River Basin lies in a high-biodiversity transition zone between the Andes and the Amazon, within the Podocarpus–El Cóndor Biosphere Reserve. Its waters empty into the Marañón river and eventually into the Amazon river. The community of Ortega Alto learned that the territory had been granted as a mining concession in 2023, claiming they had never been consulted—referring to the right of Indigenous peoples in Ecuador to have prior consultation before the granting of mining concessions.