In 2008, Ecuador took the extraordinary step of enshrining the legal rights of nature—or Pachamama—in its national constitution. It was the first country to do so. And in so doing, it established the highest legal protections for nature that exist in Western law. As a person privileged to have participated in that process, I continue to marvel that the nation took that step. It’s never easy to go first.

Our June 2020 webinar focused on Ecuador, with an excellent presentation by Attorney Hugo Echeverria, who is based in Quito and who works with CDER. He spoke about the Rights of Nature constitutional provisions in Ecuador, recent court cases on Rights of Nature, and future steps for implementation.

On May 7, we held our first monthly webinar on the Rights of Nature. Presenters Mari Margil and Thomas Linzey discussed the origins of Rights of Nature laws and how the movement to recognize rights of the natural world is building through lawmaking and court decisions in countries across the globe.