Los Cedros mining permits annulled (Ecuador)
- Courts Constitutional Court of Ecuador: The mining permits violated the rights of nature. ELAW
- Researchers Verfassungsblog (NYU MOTH): Legal mining stopped, but illegal mining and deforestation continue and the burden of protection fell on a science station. Verfassungsblog / NYU MOTH
In 2021 Ecuador's Constitutional Court annulled mining permits in the Los Cedros forest, finding that they violated the rights of nature. Reviewers reported that legal mining stopped while illegal mining and deforestation continued.
As reported in the sources cited for the case; the reserve's total area is not given.
Status As of the latest source: permits annulled in 2021; legal mining stopped; illegal mining and deforestation reported to continue; durability of the ruling's implementation not established.
- ENAMI and other permit holders — Permits annulled; legal mining stopped. Verfassungsblog / NYU MOTH
- The Los Cedros forest — Illegal mining and deforestation reported to continue after the ruling. Verfassungsblog / NYU MOTH
What happened
Two thirds of the Los Cedros forest were within a concession held by ENAMI, Ecuador's state mining company. In 2021 Ecuador's Constitutional Court found that the mining permits violated the rights of nature, which Ecuador's 2008 Constitution recognises, and annulled them. The case was brought by communities.
Verfassungsblog, in a review of rights-of-nature implementation, reported that legal mining stopped after the ruling, that illegal mining and deforestation continued, and that the state had left the burden of protection to a science station.
- 2008Ecuador's Constitution recognises rights of nature
- 2021Constitutional Court annuls the Los Cedros mining permits as violating the rights of nature
What was said
Where accounts differ
Each party's account, side by side, with its source. The record does not settle these points; it shows them.
Legal mining stopped, but illegal mining and deforestation continue and the burden of protection fell on a science station.
Verfassungsblog / NYU MOTHHow it looked
Shown
Recorded
- The Constitutional Court found the permits contrary to the rights of nature (2021).
- Legal mining stopped; illegal mining and deforestation continued.
- Two thirds of the forest lay within ENAMI's concession.
In court and with insurers
Lawsuits and rulings
- 2021Claimant wonLos Cedros rights-of-nature caseConstitutional Court of Ecuador · Administrative · Communities → Not specified in the sources collected (the forest lay within an ENAMI concession)
The court found the mining permits contrary to the rights of nature and annulled them, according to ELAW and Yale e360. ELAW
Insurers
What nature saw
Nature's report opens this page. Below: further outcomes measured on the ground.
What we don't know
Nature
- Disputed Did the ruling protect the forest in practice?
Record
- Insufficient Reported but not independently verified: mining stopped within a month of the ruling.
- None on record The sources collected give two dates for the ruling: 1 December 2021 in one place and a resource page whose address carries 10 November 2021.
- None on record How lasting the implementation of the ruling is could not be tracked in the sources collected.
Did the harm stop?
Legal mining stopped after the 2021 ruling; illegal mining and deforestation continued (Verfassungsblog).
Who paid?
The record collected does not identify who bore the cost of the annulment.
Sources
Courts
Press and investigations
Researchers
- Rights of nature implementationVerfassungsblog / NYU MOTH ·
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