Reprinted from http://climateandcapitalism.com.
On July 7, the 130-member Ecuadorian constitutional assembly, elected to rewrite the country's constitution, voted to approve articles that recognise rights for nature and ecosystems.
"If adopted in the final constitution by the people, Ecuador would become the first country in the world to codify a new system of environmental protection based on rights", says Thomas Linzey, executive director of the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund.
The environmental clauses that form part of the constitution that will be submitted to a countrywide vote, include a chapter on the "rights for nature". The text reads, in part:
"Art. 1. Nature or Pachamama, where life is reproduced and exists, has the right to exist, persist, maintain and regenerate its vital cycles, structure, functions and its processes in evolution.
"Every person, people, community or nationality, will be able to demand the recognition of rights for nature before the public institutions.
"Art. 2. Nature has the right to an integral restoration. This integral restoration is independent of the obligation on natural and juridical persons or the State to indemnify the people and the collectives that depend on the natural systems.
"In the cases of severe or permanent environmental impact, including the ones caused by the exploitation of non-renewable natural resources, the State will establish the most efficient mechanisms for the restoration, and will adopt the adequate measures to eliminate or mitigate the harmful environmental consequences.
"Art. 3. The State will motivate natural and juridical persons as well as collectives to protect nature; it will promote respect towards all the elements that form an ecosystem.
"Art. 4. The State will apply precaution and restriction measures in all the activities that can lead to the extinction of species, the destruction of the ecosystems or the permanent alteration of the natural cycles.
"The introduction of organisms and organic and inorganic material that can alter in a definitive way the national genetic patrimony is prohibited.
"Art. 5. The persons, people, communities and nationalities will have the right to benefit from the environment and form natural wealth that will allow wellbeing.
The environmental services cannot be appropriated; its production, provision, use and exploitation, will be regulated by the State."