Summary
In 2020, in Cotacachi Ecuador, Andrea Terán Valdez (biologist) in collaboration with environmental and community groups DECOIN, GARN, CEDENMA, and the Jambatu Centre for Amphibian Research, filed a protective action to stop the Llurimagua mining concession, which they argued threatened imminent violations of the rights of Nature. They argued that the mining activities were harming the endemic frog species, and therefore must be halted and prohibited given Ecuador’s Constitutional protections for the rights of Nature and requirement for precaution amid uncertainty. On June 23, 2020, a Judge of the Cotacachi Canton ruled in favor of the plaintiffs and approved the protective action to support the rights of Nature. The judge ruled that the Ministry of the Environment did not adequately observe the environmental risks and harms identified in an environmental impact study and environmental management plan, and failed to protect species on the Llurimagua mining concession in northwestern Ecuador’s biodiverse cloud forests.
The judge ruled that since the reported facts show the existence of an imminent and serious risk that the constitutional rights of nature will be violated and in particular, that the rights to full respect for their existence and the maintenance and regeneration of nature will be violated, the constitutional right to apply precautionary and restrictive measures in case of endangered species (recognized in article 73 of the Constitution) required the immediate suspension of all administrative processes and all activities leading to the exploration or extraction of metallic minerals within the Llurimagua mining concession (code 403001), until it is shown that all endangered species have been taken into account within the Environmental Impact Studies, and sufficient precautionary measures are arranged to avoid a negative impact on species and their habitats, including their possible extinction. The judge also ordered that these protective measures must remain in force until it is proven, without the slightest doubt, via an independent entity, such as the Ombudsman’s Office (Defensoría del Pueblo), that the proposed mining activities, and those subsequent to advanced exploration, would not contaminate the water resource or the felling of native forest occurs, as already occurred in the first phase of advanced exploration in the Llurimagua project, as verified by the Comptroller General of the State.
The government of Ecuador appealed, and the appellate provincial court ruled in March 2023. The Imbabura Provincial Court of Justice upheld the lower court ruling, saying that the rights of nature were violated because the Environmental Impact Study did not adequately inventory species in the area affected by the mining project or address how the mining project would prevent known endangered species and other potentially endangered species from becoming more endangered or going extinct. The court ruled that Ecuador’s Ministry of Environment, Water, and Ecological Transition violated the rights of nature by granting the environmental license for the mining project and accepted the protective action filed by the plaintiffs. The court revoked the mining company’s environmental license and ordered that all mining activity in the area of the Llurimagua Mining Project cease until the Mining Company ENAMI EP complies with all the mechanisms and guidelines for an environmental consultation as called for in the lower court ruling, and until the creation of a new impact study and environmental management plan.