Unbestknown to most people abroad, people in Ecuador until today were largely able to fend off mining companies' attempts to open mines and exploit the vast resources of copper and other metals that are lying under the surface of what is widely considered the land of the richest biodiversity in the world.
However the fight of the people who oppose mining has taken it's toll: it has been long, tough and at times bloody - and the threat is more imminent than ever.
But there is another approach, guided by the constitution of Ecuador as one of the few countries in the world it has the "Rights of Nature" embedded in its legislation. Meaning that nature is not to be exploited by humans but has equal rights and can be protected as such. So NGOs, scientists and locals try to protect their land based on the principle of "rights of nature": They gather evidence about endangered animals and plants living in certain areas that help to protect them and shield them off to mining companies. With some success.
These picture story is an artistic approach to visualizing the 25 year long fight of people against mining operations and the attempts not only to fight but to find solutions for the path of the law, engaging Ecuador's constitution and the rights of nature.
Caring for nature
A studio picture of a bomelia - the epitomal plant of the cloud forest - secured by a person s hands to symbolize how man protects nature
The end of mining
Remains of an abandoned mining settlement that in a standoff with the workers was burned down in 1997 by raging villagers
Good water, bad water
This twin waterfalls are in the area where the Resistance Rocket Frog was found in 2019 a previously unknown species that became the center of a legal battle for the rights of nature of scientists and ecologists together with the local community against the mining company
Sign of protest
Symbol of resistance Studio photo of a road sign near an abandoned mining site in the cloud forest onto which locals wrote their protest note no mine
Clouds over the cloud forest
5000 hectars of this mountain range are eyed by mining companies for the largest copper reserve in the country estimated to almost one billion tons of copper containing mineral
The protester
Rosalia at precisely the road in the cloud forest that was the site of a stand off between villagers and a paramilitary group in 2006 The paramilitaries opened fire and pepper sprayed the people that tried to hinder them to enter the area of the village br The white background connects this picture to the others and elevates the person in front of it
The Discoverer
Biologist Andrea Teran discovered the Resistance Rocket Frog in 2019 on the site of a waterfall in Junin that led to a law case using the rights of nature agains the intrusion of the mining company
The Preserver
A settler a so called paraecologist and mining opponent who helps gather evidence of endangered plants and animals to help legal fights for his land on a make-shift ladder observing the valley below his garden for cars or trucks that might approach the plateau of Cahuasqui
The Harvester
Denis a young local from Junin is preparing to cut sugar cane a main income in the valley
The Chain of Evidence
A person holding the chain that was used to cordon off the entry way to the village of Junin against intruders by the mining company br This on location studio shot is done with white background to enhance the strong graphics of the arm and the chain