Environment & Energy

To try to protect the frogs and other threatened species, Ecuadorean conservationists are turning to a novel legal strategy, citing a 2008 change to Ecuador’s constitution that endowed nature itself, from rivers to rare animal species, with the rights to exist, persist and regenerate.

In recent years, communities invoking these “rights of nature” have won legal decisions that blocked mining activities in Ecuador’s Los Cedros Reserve and Intag Valley. Documenting rare and sensitive species proved crucial in winning these cases and protecting the animals and the fragile ecosystems they inhabit.