Summary
On June 12 2015, the Constitutional Court of Ecuador ruled that the shrimp farm named “MARMEZA” within the protected area of the Mangrove Cayapas-Mataje Ecological Reserve violated the constitutional provisions that enshrine the rights of nature (7).
In 2010, the Ministry of Environment began removing shrimp companies illegally operating in three ecological reserves created to protect mangrove ecosystems. Manuel de los Santos Meza Macías filed a lawsuit against the Ministry of Environment in 2011 for a protective action to prevent the removal of his shrimp company called “MARMEZA” from the Cayapas ecological reserve. In the Provincial Court of Justice of Esmeraldas, the judge ruled that the removal of “MARMEZA” constituted an infringement on the defendant’s constitutional rights to property and to work and ruled “MARMEZA” could remain in the reserve. The decision was appealed, but the decision was upheld by the provincial court.
The Ministry of Environment appealed to the Constitutional Court and argued that the Provincial Court’s ruling did not consider rights of nature by placing the economic interest of an individual above that of nature. The Ministry of Environment sued for Protective Action to prevent the implementation of the Provincial Court decision. The court declared that the right to due process was violated and as a measure of reparation it was ordered that the contested sentence be annulled and the case be dealt with again in the Provincial Court of Justice of Esmeraldas.
The Cayapas-Mataje reserve is a mangrove forest located on the Pacific coast near the border with Colombia, between the rivers Cayapas and Mataje in the Province of Esmereldas. The site was designated as a Nature Reserve in 1996, and is a complex of estuaries and mangrove forests within the Choco-Darien-Western Ecuador hotspot, a region recognized worldwide for its high level of biodiversity, numerous endemic species, and priority for conservation.
Involved Organizations
Suggested Citation:
Kauffman, Craig, Catherine Haas, Alex Putzer, Shrishtee Bajpai, Kelsey Leonard, Elizabeth Macpherson, Pamela Martin, Alessandro Pelizzon & Linda Sheehan. Eco Jurisprudence Monitor. V2. 2026. Distributed by the Eco Jurisprudence Monitor. https://ecojurisprudence.org/initiatives/shrimp-farm-in-a-cayapas-reserve/.
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