Key policies and governance approach

The main policies for biodiversity management in Ecuador are the National Development Plan 2021-2025, the Plan for Biological Diversity 2011-2020, the National Biodiversity Strategy 2015-2030, and the National System of Protected areas [1].

The National Biodiversity Strategy 2015-2030 aims to enhance biodiversity conservation while eradicating poverty. The strategy comprises four targets, 19 results, and 51 national goals linked to the international Aichi targets. The targets are 1) to incorporate biodiversity and ecosystem services in the public management, 2) to reduce pressures and inappropriate use of biodiversity to levels that ensure its conservation; 3) to fairly distribute the benefits of biodiversity and ecosystem services, and 4) to strengthen the knowledge and capacities to ensure innovation in the sustainable use of biodiversity and ecosystem services [1].

The national goals focus on citizen knowledge about good environmental practices, increasing waste sorting, environmental awareness in education at different levels, augmenting the public funding for environmental issues, restoration of mangroves and forests, and participation of communities in programs. Moreover, the national goals include eliminating subsidies and perverse incentives that stimulate land use change in priority areas for conservation, genetic erosion of cultivated varieties, the importation of fertilizers, insecticides, herbicides and fungicides, and overexploitation of fishery resources. Other goals include that Ecuador will have at least 90% of energy from renewable sources, reduction of non-oil imports of primary goods, support of green certifications, and decrease of the deforestation. Finally, there are goals included to improve the management of conservation areas and enhance the resilience of terrestrial and marine ecosystems [1].

In 2007, Ecuador approved a new constitution in which the concepts of “Good Living” (Sumak Kawsay) and “Rights of Nature” were incorporated into the new Ecuadorian Constitution in 2008. The recognition of the rights of nature is currently a debate in the legal, sociological, and ethical fields. In Ecuador, the Mother Earth (Pachamama) has legal rights. This legal concession is promoted in parallel with alternatives to global capitalism related to the indigenous worldviews known as good living or living well. Such legal approach has some challenges to the socio-legal research and highlights the increasing acknowledgment of the rights of nature [23].

Successes and remaining challenges

The recognition that Ecuador has given to nature as a legal subject with rights has some legal and philosophical challenges. For example, not only ecosystems but individuals are subject to the right. Ecuadorian courts have settled precedents by protecting individual animals and their intrinsic values [24].

The Constitutional Court of Ecuador not only recognized animals as subjects of rights protected by the rights of nature but also outlined the rights that apply to all or some groups of animals. Rights given by the Ecuadorian constitution are the right to exist and the right not to be hunted, fished, captured, collected, extracted, kept, detained, trafficked, traded, or exchanged. Nonhuman beings have the right to free development. Besides, animals must be guaranteed sufficient space and social conditions to ensure the possibility of their natural behavior. Living beings have the right to freedom and good living, and animals have the right to freedom of movement. Living beings have the right to food according to the species’ nutritional requirements, and animals must have access to adequate food and water to maintain their health and habitat. Among other rights, animals have the right to live in harmony, access to health and physical integrity, and the right to physical, mental, and sexual integrity. These unprecedented rights established by a constitutional court in 2022 could face some challenges and tradeoffs for sustainable development [24]. Some tradeoffs include agricultural production and forestry management, and rights of ecosystems to be maintained without intervention.

Ecuador played a pioneering role in recognizing the rights of nature globally, yet the country has not been able to slow their environmental degradation. Though a few court decisions rested on the rights of nature have resulted in positive outcomes for the environment, the country still has environmental issues that challenge biodiversity conservation, sustainable management and social welfare and justice [25]. Ecuador’s courts have held more than three dozen lawsuits in the name of nature. Many have been successful, but verdicts have not always been enforced on the ground [26].

Initiatives and Development Plans

Ecuador has developed specific plans and strategies to protect, manage and recover populations of key species: a) parrot of Guayaquil, b) coast crocodile, c) Harpy eagle, d) Andean condor, e) tapirs, f) spectacled bear, g) jaguar, h) migratory species of animals, i) albatrosses and petrels, j) sharks, k) aquatic mammals of the Amazon, and l) sea turtles [1].