Читать книгу Industrial Environmental Management - Tapas K. Das - Страница 116

With the enactment of the 2008 Constitution, Ecuador became the first country in the world to codify the Rights of Nature. The Constitution, specifically Articles 10 and 71–74, recognizes the inalienable rights of ecosystems to exist and flourish, gives people the authority to petition on the behalf of ecosystems, and requires the government to remedy violations of these rights. The rights approach is a break away from traditional environmental regulatory systems, which regard nature as property and legalize and manage degradation of the environment rather than prevent it (CELDF 2017).

The Rights of Nature articles in Ecuador's constitution are part of a reaction to a combination of political, economic, and social phenomena. Ecuador's abusive past with the oil industry, most famously the class‐action litigation against Chevron, and the failure of an extraction‐based economy and neoliberal reforms to bring economic prosperity to the region has resulted in the election of a New Leftist regime, led by President Rafael Correa, and sparked a demand for new approaches to development. In conjunction with this need, the principle of “Buen Vivir,” or good living – focused on social, environmental, and spiritual wealth versus material wealth – gained popularity among citizens and was incorporated into the new constitution (Gudynas 2011).

The influence of indigenous groups, from whom the concept of “Buen Vivir” originates, in the forming of the constitutional ideals also facilitated the incorporation of the Rights of Nature as a basic tenet of their culture and conceptualization of “Buen Vivir” (Becker 2011).