Los Cedros Reserve to be protected from mining after comprehensive Ecuador Constitutional Court ruling on Rights of Nature and the environment
Los Cedros river. Image credit Rafael Cardenas
In a significant ruling on December 1, the Ecuador Constitutional Court revoked the water and environmental rights of Cornerstone Capital Resources and the Ecuador state mining company (ENAMI) for the Rio Magdalena concessions that cover most of the internationally renowned Los Cedros Reserve.
The ruling sets an important precedent for Ecuador, which was the first country in the world to enshrine the rights of nature in its rewritten constitution in 2008.
“The Court stated that the companies had been responsible for a number of constitutionalviolations. These included violating the rights of nature, the rights of nearby communities to clean water and environment and the rights of communities to consultation over the mining projects. In addition, the Court ruled that the companies failed to acquire adequate environmental and water permissionspertaining to the extraordinary diversity and vulnerability of the region,” says Liz Downes from the Rainforest Action Group, an advocacy and research group investigating the actions of Australian mining companies in Ecuador.
The Court also ordered the government to adopt regulations so that future environmental licenses and water licenses for mining and other extractive industries do not risk violating the Rights of Nature.
“This order could become a precedent to protect significant water sources and other Protected Forests. There are 2.4 million hectares of Protected Forest in Ecuador currently at risk due to large scale mining,” says Liz Downes.
Brown-headed spider monkey at Los Cedros Reserve. Image credit Mike Peck
“Mining activities – even at early exploration stage – in the high-altitude cloud forests and grassland regions of the Ecuadorian Andes risk contaminating and depleting the water sources of local communities and the farms they depend on, as well as risking the extinction of thousands of endemic and endangered species. Across Ecuador, communities on the frontline say they have never been consulted about mining, and this ruling potentially gives weight to their argument, ” says Liz Downes.
Around 30% of mining concessions in Ecuador granted by the government since 2017 – just over 700,000 hectares – are owned by Australian companies, who are exploring for copper and other base metals. Mining companies potentially impacted by the ruling include SolGold, who are developing 13 priority projects nearly all of which cover protected areas.
Hanrine (Hancock Prospecting) and BHP each have several concessions in the region around Los Cedros in north-western Ecuador, which almost without exception overlap the buffer zones of mega-biodiverse and threatened forests like Los Cedros and Cotacachi-Cayapas National Park. Communities in this area have strongly resisted mining for decades.
Cornerstone Capital Resources, in a press release, says it has made a submission to the Constitutional Court requesting further details about the impact of the ruling on its activities.
“It is unclear as yet as to how the ruling will be enforced in terms of legislation. But this is set as a precedent case with no legal appeal possible,” says Liz Downes.
A plan to manage and care for Los Cedros Reserve will be established jointly with the Ministry of the Environment, Water and Ecological Transition, residents of the neighbouring communities, local and state councils, as well as researchers, scientists and academics who have conducted studies in the Protected Forest. In accordance with the ruling, this process is to be overseen by the Ombudsman's Office.
On September 12, members of Intag's local government and organisations sent a letter to the CEOS of BHP, Cornerstone Capital Resources, Codelco and Sunstone Metals, stating that unconsulted mining in their territories was threatening water sources, and demanding they stop explorations in the area.
The email below was sent to the CEOs of BHP Billiton and its subsidiary Cerro Quebrado S.A.; Cornerstone Capital Resources Inc. and its subsidiary Cornerstone Ecuador S.A.; CODELCO, and its subsidiary Exploraciones Mineras Andinas Ecuador Emsaec s.a.; with copies to President Guillermo Lasso, Ministries of the Environment and Water, and the Ministry of Energy and Non-renewable Resources. Visit DECOIN for more information.
We, the undersigned representatives of the Autonomous Decentralized Parochial Governments and the principal social organizations of the Intag area, Cotacachi County, Province of lmbabura, send you our most sincere greetings. At the same time, we would like you to listen to the voice of the majority of the population of the Intag area, which has been struggling since January 1995 to prevent the development of metallic mining projects in our territories.
1) Please be aware, CEOs and Ministers, that mining concessions were granted in the Intag area without prior consultation with the potentially affected populations, in flagrant violation of Article 398 of the Constitution of the Republic of Ecuador. In addition to contradicting the Development and Land Use Plans of the decentralized autonomous governments, the mining projects ignore the pronouncement of the Assembly of Unity of Cotacachi County, a space for citizen participation and which has, since 1996, rejected extractivism.
The nearly 90,000 hectares under concession, and being processed, include dozens of communities, productive agricultural lands that supply several cities in Ecuador with food, as well as organic export markets, tourist attractions, 21 micro and sub-watersheds, and includes an important extension of primary and secondary cloud forests. We remind you that the forests of Intag are within the Tropical Andes Biodiversity Hotspot, the most biodiverse of all the Hotspots of global importance. They are home to critically endangered species of mammals, birds, amphibians, fish and trees, including one of the world’s most endangered primates, as well as sheltering and protecting the water of 50 communities. Some species, such as the Longnose Harlequin Frog and the Rocket Frog, have only been reported in the forests of a mining concession and nowhere else in the world.
3) At least 48 water sources that supply the population of rural communities in the Intag area with this vital liquid are located entirely within the mining concessions. In addition, there are more than 200 natural sources of water for human consumption and food sovereignty for local peasant families.
4) Several mining concessions of BHP-Billiton and Cornerstone overlap the Los Cedros, Cebu and El Placer-La Florida Protected Forests, as well as thousands of hectares of forests registered in the Socio Bosque forest conservation program, where mining activities will directly contribute to the degradation of the sites’ biodiversity and worsen the climate crisis.
5) All mining concessions in the Intag Zone, without exception, intersect with the protection zone known as the Buffer Zone of the Cotacachi Cayapas National Park, considered one of the most biologically important on the planet. In the buffer zones, as should be obvious, only sustainable activities that serve as an environmental buffer should be allowed.
6) 100% of the concessioned areas in Intag are within the ACUSMIT, the Intag-Toisan Municipal Conservation and Sustainable Use Area, approved by municipal ordinance in 2019, in whose strict protection and conservation/recovery macrozones no mining activities are allowed. This is not the only municipal ordinance in Cotacachi County that prioritizes conservation and prohibits mining. In 2000, an ordinance was passed declaring Cotacachi an Ecological County. The Ordinance, as well as the ACUSMIT, is still in effect.
7) Intag currently has 38 Community Hydrological Reserves covering some 12,000 hectares of cloud forests and micro-watersheds. All but one of the reserves are located within the mining concessions. Apart from contributing to climate stability and biodiversity conservation, the reserves supply thousands of inhabitants with clean water, and are jealously protected by the communities. Any activity that degrades the vegetation cover is prohibited in the reserves, as is hunting and logging. Mining is expressly prohibited within the reserves.
8) According to a preliminary environmental impact study for a small copper mine in the Llurimagua area prepared by Japanese experts, Intag’s copper deposits are mixed with highly toxic substances. The expert authors of the study predicted the contamination of our rivers with arsenic, lead, cadmium and chromium. Likewise, massive deforestation is predicted, which would lead to the drying of our climate, and the relocation of four communities. Subsequently, they reported the presence of an even larger deposit.
With all this background, we call on you to preserve our right to live in peace and in a healthy environment, rights enshrined in the Constitution of Ecuador, laws and international agreements. We will not allow those business practices that have proven to be sources of conflict in our communities, nor mining activities that cause degradation of our forests, biodiversity and especially our water sources. Therefore, we strongly reject the unconsented presence of mining companies, and, even more so in times of global climate emergency, and we call on national and international bodies to join us in defending the Intag area and in building a future without extractivism.
Signatures follow below:
It is worth mentioning that these organizations, unlike the ones that support mining, have never received a penny from the mining companies.
Landmark Rights of Nature case to be heard in Ecuador’s Constitutional Court on October 19
The outcome of this significant case to protect the Los Cedros Reserve from mining would set a precedent for all future Rights of Nature cases, and could dramatically limit the ability of mining companies to operate in Ecuador.
In 2018, Canadian mining company Cornerstone Capital Resources was given a permit to explore on the Los Cedros Reserve in a joint-venture arrangement with the Ecuadorian state mining company, ENAMI. BHP also has a concession that overlaps part of the Reserve. A positive ruling at the Constitutional Court level would not only protect the Los Cedros Reserve from mining, but could provide a precedent to safeguard all 186 Protected Forests in Ecuador, totalling some 2.4 million hectares (6 million acres).
Los Cedros Reserve in north-western Ecuador is one of the most biologically diverse habitats in the world, with more than 4,800 hectares (nearly 12,000 acres) of primary cloud forest safeguarding the headwaters of four important watersheds. It also protects incredible diversity, including over 200 species facing a high risk of extinction, five of which are regarded as critically endangered by the Ecuadorian government.
One of these species is the critically endangered Brown-headed spider monkey. Only 250 of these rare monkeys remain, around a quarter of which live at Los Cedros. Los Cedros is a Key Biodiversity Area, which makes it critical to the global persistence of biodiversity and the health of the planet. In May, the Constitutional Court of Ecuador specifically cited the biodiversity at Los Cedros and the presence of “the last populations of the spider monkey in a critical state of conservation, and the Andean (spectacled) bear [which is] in danger of extinction” as reasons for hearing the case.
On October 19th, the Court will be examining evidence concerning whether or not mining should be allowable within Los Cedros, which is a type of protected forest known as a bosque protector. The upcoming hearing is predicted to focus on the application of the Rights of Nature, which were guaranteed in Articles 71–74 of Ecuador’s constitution.
Natalia Greene, the vice president of CEDENMA and a member of the executive committee for the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature, and a member of Los Cedros’s legal team, says, “The Rights of Nature in Article 71-73 are quite important to understand the case of Los Cedros. It's an amazing place, threatened by mining. By reading these articles, you can understand that, if nature has rights — especially nature with such a big biodiversity, with so many species that are unique and that are on the verge of extinction — then Article 71 and 73 need to be applied in Los Cedros since it is facing such a big threat.”
Edgar Merlo who heads the legal team for Los Cedros, said: “The [Constitutional] Court’s ruling in this case would be a first in Ecuador: on the Rights of Nature, the right to prior consultation of communities, and the right to legal certainty, since concessions were granted without respecting the declaration of protective forests. The final judgment by the Constitutional Court in this case could change the legal focus in Ecuador, South America, and the entire world on the Rights of Nature and the rights of local communities, so that mining concessions are not granted in Protected Forests.”
The rapid expansion of mining in Ecuador since 2017 has seen a 300% increase in new concessions for mining exploration, totaling over 2.9 million hectares (6.17 million acres) of land.
A recent ruling indicates that these mining concessions may not be legal, given that affected communities did not give Prior and Informed Consent, since concessions were granted without respect for the national networks of Protected Forests and Indigenous Territories, and given that the granting of concessions impedes upon the Rights of Nature enshrined in the Constitution.
“Our legal case has been based on the argument that mining in Protected Forests is a violation of the legal status of declared Protected Areas, the Rights of Nature, and the right of communities to prior consultation, even before considering potential environmental damages,” says Jose DeCoux, manager and founder of Los Cedros reserve.
“Ecuador was the first nation to include the Rights of Nature in its constitution. It could now become the first nation to protect large swathes of biodiversity, based upon this constitutional innovation. This would set an invaluable precedent worldwide,” says Jonathon Porritt, one of the UK’s leading environmentalists.
The Los Cedros case is not the only case currently being heard on the Rights of Nature. A Constitutional Injunction won at the Cotacachi Court on September 24 may give endemic species all over Ecuador protective rights from mining through the Rights of Nature clause.
The Constitutional Court has chosen these cases to test how the Rights of Nature in the Constitution should be applied on a judiciary level. The outcome will serve as a precedent for all future Rights of Nature cases, and could have implications for the future of mining throughout the country.
Scientists and academics are expected to put forward testimonies about the importance of the Los Cedros Reserve as a crucial habitat for endangered species at the hearing, and the need to safeguard legally protected forests from extractive industries such as mining. All phases of mining are scientifically proven to decrease biodiversity through the collective impacts of road construction, deforestation, and associated river sedimentation and pollution.
The Constitutional Court required scientists to submit research supporting the value of Los Cedros to an online web portal by October 15. However, issues with the portal meant no-one was able to login and submit testimonies in the required format. Some scientists were able to email or send these letters in hardcopy by the due date, but there are concerns that these submissions may not be accepted, or that vital testimonies may be lost due to this technical hitch.
“It is impossible to understate how important the habitat that Los Cedros protects is, and the science shows that very clearly. It houses incredible diversity that we haven’t even begun to fully understand, plays a vital role in the water cycle, is an important carbon capture, and so much more. There’s so little intact primary forest left. Los Cedros is the last refuge for countless organisms,” says Professor Bitty A. Roy from the University of Oregon’s Institute for Ecology and Evolution.
There has already been significant international outrage at the threat to the reserve, with more than 19,000 signatories to a petition set up by the US Center of Biological Diversity in August. A separate scientists petition was signed by over 1200 scientists, including Jane Goodall, EO Wilson, Peter Raven, and Rosemary and Peter Grant.
Given the climate emergency, the need to keep reserves like Los Cedros intact takes on added urgency. Beyond the extraordinary biodiversity of these forests, they are vital to sequester carbon and water.
Meanwhile mining company Cornerstone Capital Resources continues to explore within the Reserve, without the appropriate permits, despite overwhelming opposition in the region, and in direct contravention of Protective Measures granted by the Provincial Court of Imbabura in June 2019.
FOR MORE INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:
Jose Cueva - Media spokesperson intaglibre@gmail.com +593 99 9347230 Josef DeCoux - Los Cedros Reserve jose@reservaloscedros.org +593 99 277 8878 Bitty Roy - Biologist at University of Oregon bit@uoregon.edu +1 541-343-3896
