Help protect the Condor Highlands of Ecuador from the proposed massive Mirador open pit mining project.
Sign our petition to Judge Paul Narvaez, Twenty Fifth Civil Judge of Pichincha or send your own letter.
Click to sign petition!
Ecuador is facing one of its most challenging cases for Rights of Nature as the government moves ahead with a contract for open pit mining in Ecuador. In March 2012, the government of Ecuador signed a contract with Ecuacorrientes (ECSA), a company of Chinese capital to extract copper, gold and silver from the Condor Highland via open pit mining in southeastern Ecuador.
Today the humid tropical forest of the Condor Highland is one of the richest and most biodiverse areas of South America. The proposed Mirador Project includes an area encompassing almost 10,000 hectares (25,000 acres). Mirador’s open pit mines will eliminate all the vegetation and the superficial soil layer of the mined area including 4,000 species of vascular plants that contain the richest biodiversity in South America. The project violates the rights of these ecosystems and the Ecuadorian Constitution. The strong case highlights the fact that Walsh Consultant, hired by ECSA to make the Environmental Impact Assessment, determines that species of amphibians and reptiles, endemic from the zone could go extinct since the fragile habitats where their life depends on will be completely removed with the project and water sources and aquifers will be polluted. In spite of this report the Environmental License was given and the contract signed.
Environmental, human rights, and indigenous organizations, along with local community members from the Condor region in Ecuador have joined together to file a lawsuit to stop the Mirador Mining Project. The suit claims that the mine would violate the protected rights of ecosystems guaranteed in the Articles 71-73 on Rights of Nature in the Ecuadorian Constitution. The case is now being analyzed by the 25th Civil Court of Pichincha against the Ministry of Non Renewable Resources, the Ministry of Environment and Ecuacorriente with the plaintiffs asking to stop the Mirador Mining Project using the precautionary principle to guarantee Rights of Nature, Right to Water and Right to a Decent Life.
Add your voice to those of the citizens of Ecuador calling for rights of the fragile ecosystems of the Condor Highlands as guaranteed in the Constitution to be upheld!
If you prefer to send your own letter of support for Rights of Nature and the Condor Highlands of Ecuador to Judge Narvaez, you may do so by completing the form below.
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Thank you for your support!