
The fate of some of Ecuador’s last remaining cloud forests and hundreds of livelihoods rests on the outcome of a trailblazing Rights of Nature case concerning two tiny amphibians.
Read the full article at Ecologist – Informed by Nature, Jan 11, 2021
Other key issues in this article include the consequences of unchecked growth, extraction:
Here we come to an uncomfortable but key aspect of the issue. Copper is one of the basic metals for the “clean” energy transformation, so what are we to do if we don’t mine enough of it?
Shouldn’t the question be, how can we contain runaway climate crisis without being complicit in human rights violations, the devastation communities, and the decimation of forests harbouring threatened species?
Why aren’t we carrying out an independent cost-benefit analysis of mining projects that may impact endangered species, water sources, indigenous and non-indigenous peoples as well as the rights of nature?
What will happen to ecosystems and the climate itself, if we keep placing a higher value to what is below ground than the richness above it? That wealth includes a region’s clean water, productive lands, biodiversity, and cultural and social wealth. It is the type of wealth that can also help drive sustainable economic activities.
The biodiversity crisis is just as critical as the climate crisis. It is upon us to act accordingly.
This Author
Carlos Zorrilla is a full-time resident of Intag, co-founder of DECOIN, the environmental organization on the front lines of the resistance to the Llurimagua, Ecuador, mining project since day one. In 2017, DECOIN was a recipient of the prestigious Equator Prize for its conservation work. The award is only given out every two years by the United Nations.
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