Adopted September 28, 2008, as part of the Ecuador Constitution

Title II

Fundamental Rights

Chapter 1

Entitlement, Application and Interpretation Principles of the Fundamental Rights

Art. Rights Entitlement. Persons and people have the fundamental rights guaranteed in this Constitution and in the international human rights instruments.

Nature is subject to those rights given by this Constitution and Law.

Chapter: Rights for Nature

Art. 1. Nature or Pachamama, where life is reproduced and exists, has the right to exist, persist, maintain itself and regenerate its own vital cycles, structure, functions and its evolutionary processes.

Any person, people, community or nationality, may demand the observance of the rights of the natural environment before public bodies. The application and interpretation of these rights will follow the related principles established in the Constitution.

Art. 2. Nature has the right to be completely restored. This complete restoration is independent of the obligation on natural and juridical persons or the State to compensate people or collective groups that depend on the natural systems.

In the cases of severe or permanent environmental impact, including the ones caused by the exploitation of nonrenewable natural resources, the State will establish the most efficient mechanisms for the restoration, and will adopt the adequate measures to eliminate or mitigate the harmful environmental consequences.

Art. 3. The State will motivate natural and juridical persons as well as collectives to protect nature; it will promote respect towards all the elements that form an ecosystem.

Art. 4. The State will apply precaution and restriction measures in all the activities that can lead to the extinction of species, the destruction of the ecosystems or the permanent alteration of the natural cycles.

The introduction of organisms and organic and inorganic material that can alter in a definitive way the national genetic heritage is prohibited.

Art. 5. The persons, people, communities and nationalities will have the right to benefit from the environment and form natural wealth that will allow wellbeing.

The environmental services cannot be appropriated; its production, provision, use and exploitation, will be regulated by the State.