Ecuador´s New Constitution

The article below is from the New York Times.

September 29, 2008, 8:34 am

Ecuador Constitution Grants Rights to Nature
By Andrew C. Revkin

News accounts of Ecuador’s vote on Sunday approving a new Constitution mainly focused on how its terms could help the country’s leftist leader, Rafael Correa, an American-educated economist, gain and hold more power. Details are in Simon Romero’s article on the Ecuador vote and its implications.

But as I mentioned last week, the Constitution includes a novel set of articles that appear to be the first in any Constitution granting inalienable rights to nature. Cyril Mychalejko of UpsideDownWorld.org wrote an interesting column exploring the political subtext and explaining how realities on the ground in that turbulent country may limit the significance of the language. Still, the wording alone is fascinating, as is the simple fact that the provisions were included.

One passage says nature “has the right to exist, persist, maintain and regenerate its vital cycles, structure, functions and its processes in evolution.”

[UPDATED:] The language in these provisions was written by Ecuador’s Constitutional Assembly with input from the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, a Pennsylvania-based group providing legal assistance to governments and community groups trying to mesh human affairs and the environment. The group says it has helped more than a dozen communities in New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Virginia draft and pass laws “that change the status of ecosystems from being regarded as property under the law to being recognized as rights-bearing entities.”

My guess is that Edward O. Wilson would love to see this language adopted everywhere.

Simon Romero, my colleague covering the news, told me in e-mail Sunday night that this particular provision “has been derided within Ecuador” given the history of pollution from state-run and private oil companies in the Amazon and the government’s need to keep oil flowing to sustain the economy.

Earlier this year, Nick Kristof, our peripatetic Op-Ed columnist, filed a column and nice video from the Ecuadorian Amazon showing one approach to economic development shaped around the living forest.

What’s your take on the Ecuadorian Constitution?

A Day in the Life of Two Gringos

So... Armstrong and I made it to Quito in one piece. Billy does not like to fly much. Usually, I do not like to fly either, but for some reason our flights into Panama City and Quito did not phase me. On the plane I was trying to drink some water out of my new filter bottle, but was having some trouble. I took the bite valve out of my mouth to see what the problem was, squeezed the bottle a bit, and absolutely soaked the guy sitting across the aisle from me. I literally sprayed the guy for ten seconds. I just watched the stream of water leap across the aisle in utter disbelief. He was a big dude. Thankfully, we both just started laughing hysterically. Other than this little incident, everything is going according to plan. Our transition from the airport to the Crossroads hotel was easy, and the atmosphere around the airport was nowhere near as chaotic as I anticipated.

After we set up shop at Crossroads, we went out to grab some dinner and a huge pitcher of margaritas. No sleep, altitude, and alcohol equals going back to the hotel and falling asleep at five thirty in the afteroon and waking up fourteen hours later.

We woke up this morning and hit the streets, grabbed breakfast in a local neighborhood near ´old town´, and walked our way into a few huge churches. Quito is suprisingly clean, easy to navigate, and amazingly beautiful. A taxi full of local girls shouted as they drove bye, ´Hey gringos´. This happened again a few minutes later by a shopkeeper sweeping the street. Billy proceeded to ask me, ´... come on Mayer, can´t you just be a little more blanco right now.´ This comment will likely continue for the next two weeks.

We made our way back toward our hotel through a giant central park. We haggled over some artwork with a shrewd little women. I did most of the haggling. Billy can only look confused right now, and his head hurts from trying to follow every conversation.

We continued on to a local mountain outfitter and planned a trip to climb Cotopaxi. After we squared everything away, we spent some time bouldering on the homemade climbing wall outside the shop. We´re leaving in the morning for the jungle. Apparently, we have only one major military checkpoint to go through before we need to get off the bus in a small town called Borja, follow a dirt road down to a bridge, cross a river, hang a left, and pick up our kayaks.

Piece of cake.