ORIGIN
Constitution of the Republic of Ecuador, Article 71 (Rights of Pacha Mama)
Constitución de la República del Ecuador (2008), Title II, Ch. 7, Art. 71 · 2008
The first national constitution to make Nature itself a rights-bearing subject.
“Nature, or Pacha Mama, where life is reproduced and occurs, has the right to integral respect for its existence and for the maintenance and regeneration of its life cycles, structure, functions and evolutionary processes.”
The Ruling
Article 71 of Ecuador's 2008 Constitution declares: 'Nature, or Pacha Mama, where life is reproduced and occurs, has the right to integral respect for its existence and for the maintenance and regeneration of its life cycles, structure, functions and evolutionary processes.' Article 71 further grants any person, community, or nation standing to enforce these rights — solving in one constitutional clause the standing problem the US Supreme Court left unresolved in Sierra Club v. Morton.
The Personhood Argument Not Made
Ecuador's text is the cleanest possible inversion of the Roman-law tradition that classified nature as res (thing) rather than persona (person). It does not derive nature's rights from human interest, beauty, scientific value, or future-generations argumentation — it asserts them as intrinsic. And by giving universal standing to enforce, it severs the procedural choke-point that has historically disabled ecological personhood elsewhere. This is personhood by constitutional fiat, with operational machinery built in.
The Execution Gap Created
The gap between Article 71 and Ecuadorian extractive-industry policy is wide. The Correa and Moreno governments expanded oil and mining concessions in the Amazon throughout the 2010s, often in the territories of Indigenous nations whose own personhood claims overlap with the river and forest claims. Constitutional Court enforcement has been uneven; the 2021 Los Cedros case (which protected a cloud forest from mining) is celebrated precisely because it is rare. Constitutional personhood is necessary but, on its own, insufficient.
Primary sources & research
Related cases
Part of The Personhood Prism, the companion to The Execution Gap by Thomas William Hornig. See all personhood cases →