Western Washington University Western CEDAR WWU Honors Program Senior Projects WWU Graduate and Undergraduate Scholarship Spring 2021 Ecuador’s Amazon, Rights of Nature, and the Dilemma of the 2008 Constitution Olivia Moore Western Washington University Follow this and additional works at: https://cedar.wwu.edu/wwu_honors Part of the Political Science Commons Recommended Citation Moore, Olivia, "Ecuador’s Amazon, Rights of Nature, and the Dilemma of the 2008 Constitution" (2021). WWU Honors Program Senior Projects. 480. https://cedar.wwu.edu/wwu_honors/480 This Project is brought to you for free and open access by the WWU Graduate and Undergraduate Scholarship at Western CEDAR. It has been accepted for inclusion in WWU Honors Program Senior Projects by an authorized administrator of Western CEDAR. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Western Washington University Ecuador’s Amazon, Rights of Nature, and the Dilemma of the 2008 Constitution Olivia Moore Honors Capstone Project Advised by Dr. Kirsten Drickey June 2021 1 Introduction Ecuador became the first country in the world to recognize the rights of nature in its 2008 Constitution. In general, the rights of nature are constitutional legal rights that hold a similar weight to the rights designated to people. A summary of the rights of nature include “the right to integral respect for its existence” and “the right to be restored,” among others (“Ecuador's Constitution of 2008” 35). Despite recognizing these rights, Ecuador faces a dilemma. As an extractivist state, it is difficult for Ecuador to pursue environmental protection while also exploiting natural resources like oil for economic gain.