Summary
On June 18, 2019, lawyer Darwin Andrés Riera Duchitanga (the plaintiff) filed a protection action against the Ministry of the Environment (MAE), Ministry of Energy and Non-Renewable Natural Resources (MERNNR) and the Regulation and Control Agency Miner (ARCOM). The plaintiff alleged that the mining concessions that had been issued within the Forest and Protective Vegetation Area of the Upper Basin of the Nangaritza River, in the Nangaritza canton of the province of Zamora Chinchipe, violated the rights of nature given that said area was part of the Podocarpus-El Cóndor biosphere reserve and the Cerro Plateado biological reserve. The judge offered the immediate inspection of the area and the mining titles granted in it, and determined that the Ministry of Energy and Non-Renewable Natural Resources must implement a system that allows better control of protected areas and forests of protective vegetation. However, ACROM did not present any information despite having been requested by the judiciary. Therefore, the plaintiff filed an appeal. The higher Provincial Court denied the appeal and annulled the ruling of the judge since it considered that, in the case, there was no violation of constitutional rights.
In October 2019, Darwin Andrés Riera Duchitanga (plaintiff) submitted the ruling on the protective action to the Constitutional Court where it is being processed. The Constitutional Court states that “With the selection of this case, the Court could develop the standards and limits of use of protected areas, the rights of nature in situations of extraction activities near protected areas and the responsibilities of the entities in charge of carrying out monitoring and monitoring of said activities.” (2). In 2021, Earth Law Center, Center for Biological Diversity, Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights (CDER), and more submitted amicus curiae briefs in the Nangaritza River case before Ecuador’s Constitutional Court.
Over a span of 20 years, the government has promoted mining concession processes in a quarter of the territory.