What Would You Call It?
Typical cloud forest in the Intag region of Ecuador. Photo Credit: author Imagine living in one of the most beautiful and biodiverse places on Earth: the Intag region of Northwest Ecuador. It’s a land blessed with clean rivers, dozens of waterfalls, pristine cloud forests, and small, peaceful agricultural communities. The soil is fertile, the landscape […]
Read MoreFrogs, coalitions, and mining: Transformative insights for planetary health and earth system law from Ecuador’s struggle to enforce Nature’s rights
Author links open overlay panel Carlos Andres Gallegos-Riofrío abc, Mario A. Moncayo-Altamirano d , Andrea Terán-Valdez e, Gustavo Redin-Guerrero f , Carlos Varela d, Stephen Posner g, Amaya Carrasco-Torrontegui bch Abstract Pachamama, Mother Earth, faces a mass extinction threat. A radical transformation in human systems is essential, guided by equity and justice at local and global scales. This transformation must reconfigure the World-System’s power structures, impacting the ecosphere (ecological functions, biodiversity, and resource […]
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INTAG SANTUARIO DE VIDA
Intag, incluyendo la concesión minera Llurimagua, donde opera la CODELCO, fue declarada Santuario de Vida unánimemente por el gobierno autónomo de Cotacachi en octubre del 2024. Una de las disposiciones es que se reviertan las concesiones mineras al estado. Por algo es Santuario de Vida Dentro de las 4,900 hectáreas de la concesión minera se […]
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DECOIN a los 30
Asamblea zonal anti minera, septiembre 2019, una de varias asambleas organizada por la DECOIN En unos días, DECOIN (Defensa y Conservación Ecológica de Intag) cumplirá 30 años de existencia. La idea surgió en la finca La Florida, Parroquia Plaza Gutiérrez, Cantón Cotacachi) cuando el ahora Obispo Geovanni Paz invitó a unos jóvenes de la Parroquia […]
Read MoreBRIEF HISTORY OF RESISTANCE TO MINING IN INTAG, ECUADOR (April 2024)**
The Twins Waterfall. Llurimagua Mining Concession. (Carlos Zorrilla) –Computer translated– I. Before continuing, a brief, and partial summary of the facts and achievements since the last update 2017: La Decoin was awarded by the United Nations with the 2017 Equatorial Prize for our work in favor of conservation and support for sustainable development. It is […]
Read MoreBREVE HISTORIA DE LA RESISTENCIA A LA MINERIA EN INTAG, ECUADOR** (abril 2024)
I. Antes de continuar, un breve, y parcial resumen de los hechos y logros desde la última actualización 2017: La Decoin fue premiada por las Naciones Unidas con el Premio Ecuatorial 2017 por nuestro trabajo en favor de la conservación y apoyo al desarrollo sustentable. Es el premio más importante del mundo que se otorga […]
Read MoreNEW DOCUMENTARY ON THE ROLE OF INTERNATIONAL TRIBUNALS IN INTAG’S STRUGGLE AGAINST THE EXTRACTIVE INDUSTRY
This short documentary highlights one of the most powerful forces communities come up against in their resistance to extractivism that most people don’t know about. After you watch the documentary you will see what a miracle it is when communities defeat multinational coorporations. Intag has sucessfully struggled agains six of these corporations these past 39 […]
Read MoreVeinticinco razones por qué Codelco no se debe meter en Intag
Carlos Zorrilla (actualizado octubre-2023) ACTUALIZACIÓN:: #25 DESPUÉS DE CASI 3 DÉCADAS DE LUCHA, LAS COMUNIDADES DE INTAG TRIUNFAN! 29 DE MARZO 2023: La Corte Provincial de Imbabura finalmente le dio la razón a las comunidades y falló en contra del proyecto minero Llurimagua, revocando la licencia ambiental y ordenando un cese total a toda actividad […]
Read MoreEcuador court upholds ‘rights of nature,’ blocks Intag Valley copper mine
by Liz Kimbrough on 31 March 2023 Communities in the Intag Valley of Ecuador have won a significant legal victory after a court ruled to halt copper mining in one of the world’s most biodiverse forests. The Imbabura Provincial Court ruled on March 29 that Chilean copper producer Codelco and Ecuador’s Empresa Nacional Minera (ENAMI EP) had […]
Read MoreCODELCO’S TROUBLED MINING PROJECT IN INTAG UNDER NEW SCRUTINY
For nearly 30 years, communities have worked to conserve, restore and defend the cloud forests of the Intag Valley in Ecuador, in what locals say is the longest continuous resistance movement against mining in Latin America.
The tropical Andes are considered the world’s most biodiverse hotspot, ranking first in plant, bird, mammal and amphibian diversity; however, less than 15% of Ecuador’s original cloud forests and only 4% of all forests in northwestern Ecuador remain.
Codelco, the world’s largest copper producer, plans to open a mine in the Intag Valley that would destroy primary forest and lie within the buffer area of Cotacachi Cayapas Ecological Reserve — a plan that experts say would be ecologically devastating and not worth the cost.
Communities are using the presence of two threatened frog species — previously thought to be extinct — at the mining site to challenge the project under the “rights of nature,” Ecuador’s constitutional guarantee that natural ecosystems have the right to exist, thrive, and evolve.