Ecuador 1st Nation in World to Give Nature Rights Via Constitution

Exit polls indicate that a majority of Ecuadorians have voted yes to a new constitution. The constitution is the first in the world’s history to grant nature legal rights, and also to allow individuals to sue on nature’s behalf in courts. It is a major victory for Ecuador’s President, Rafael Correa.

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Ecuador’s El Comercio provides data from three separate exit polls which when averaged indicate that around 66.47% of voters said yes on the referendum to pass the new constitution (a strong enough majority to say that the Constitution has passed in this writer’s opinion).

Last week we previewed this historic vote and its implications on Ecoworldly, and you can read the overview by clicking here.

While the the new constitution has many ramifications for how the country will now be governed, the pro-nature aspects of the constitution have their roots in Ecuador’s resentment toward international companies that have exploited the country’s natural resources and left pollution and poverty in their wake. Currently Ecuadorians are in one particularly nasty lawsuit with Chevron (formerly Texaco). The oil company polluted a huge area with oil waste and did not clean it up, causing extreme pollution to ecosystems and deadly health problems for numerous communities. It has been described as the “Amazon Chernobyl.”

For this reason, the new Constitution will allow for Ecuadorians to sue on nature’s behalf, and will also give the president increased powers over numerous industries, including the oil and mining sectors.

Photo Credit: _Skender_ on Flickr under a Creative Commons license

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