Northwestern jaguar subspecies - critically endangered in Ecuador. Photo: Murray Cooper

Ecuador is the most biodiverse country per hectare in the world.

This small country in the Andes region of South America is thought by ecologists to be home to around 13% of the planet's species - that is, all phyla, including plants, fungi, amphibians, reptiles, birds, insects and mammals.

Ecuador's diverse landscapes are home some of the world's rarest ecosystems, some of which have barely been studied. Because of the climate, latitude and geography, the amount of endemism (species which exist nowhere else) is extraordinary. 

The Andes, running like a spine through the country, are rainmakers. The mountains, and the forests which flank them, create ground and aerial rivers that run to the coast and the Amazon basin. They regulate the climatic and hydrological cycles for the entire continent of South America.

For Indigenous Highland peoples, whose ancestors have lived here for thousands of years, the mountains are sacred, water birthers, givers of life.

But since 2017, over two million hectares of Ecuador's mega-biodiverse forests, highland ecosystems and water source regions have been threatened by large-scale mining.

The Rainforest Information Centre - alongside Australian and international partners - is supporting rural and Indigenous people to protect their lands from this onslaught of capitalism and greed.

This river, draining the Andes in the province of Imbabura, northwest Ecuador, supports important ecosystems. But it is situated within a mining concession and is probably already contaminated. Photo: Peter Shear

We are entirely dependent upon small grants and donations

to do our solidarity work in Ecuador.

Please DONATE HERE to our crowdfund!

Help us achieve our project budget for 2024-2025 of $40,000 US!

We are volunteers. 100% of funds support frontline communities in their grassroots actions,

scientific research, conservation projects, citizen science, and legal campaigns. 

To learn more about our Ecuador-based campaigns and projects, read on ...

Residents of the community of Gualel, Loja Province, southern Ecuador, survey mountains which have been considered sacred by their ancestors for hundreds of years. The land on which they stand - an important archeological site and water source area - is undergoing exploration drilling for copper and gold by Australian company SolGold. Photo: Liz Downes

An epic land grab

In 2017, around a third of Ecuador's land mass was sold by the government to national and transnational mining companies. Exploration is mainly for copper and gold (Ecuador is part of the fabled "Andean Copper Belt"), but other minerals of interest are silver, lead and uranium.

This sale was done with zero knowledge or consent from the public. Over two million hectares of the land under concession covers protected forests and Indigenous territories.

With several rounds of concessions awarded since 2017, the number of active exploration licenses has increased by the hundreds. The opening of the new National Mining Registry in early 2023 will speed the process up even more.

A third of the investment is from Australian companies, including BHP, SolGold, Fortescue Metals Group, Newcrest, Sunstone, Titan Minerals, and Hanrine (privately owned by Gina Rinehart).

To make the irony even worse, several of the above companies are greenwashing their Ecuador investments as being for "clean" copper for the global energy transition towards a fossil fuel free future! 

This is not clean and green.

It is a human rights and environmental catastrophe, and it is unconscionable to allow this scale of mining to go ahead in a global climate and biodiversity emergency.

If these mining projects go ahead, potentially hundreds of endangered species risk extinction.

Over the past seven years, human rights abuses and contamination incidents have occurred in hotspots all over the country. Companies continue to aggressively pursue their exploration activities as we speak. And the resistance from the grassroots continues to grow.

To get a visceral feel of the size of the situation and the landscapes, biodiversity and communities who are being impacted, watch this trailer for a documentary film being created by our partners, the "Marrow of the Mountain" project. 

Melbourne Rainforest Action Group (MRAG) drives the active part of our campaign in Australia and has produced many media releases, maps and reports on Australian mining company investment in Ecuador. MRAG is networked with a range of other grassroots and solidarity groups in south-eastern Australia who are concerned about social, environmental and Indigenous rights issues related to mining.

Euglossine and Lycomormium orchid - one of the millions of incredible (and largely unstudied by science) pollinator species in Ecuador. Its home is a mining concession in Intag, in the northwest of the country. Image: Carlos Zorilla.

NEWS IN 2024

Another copper disaster looms

In May, an Australian company - SolGold - signed a multi-million-dollar deal with the Ecuadorian Government to build a huge copper mine close to the northwestern Ecuador/Colombia border.

This mine - named Cascabel - could be an unmitigated disaster if waste is not properly managed in the highly mountainous, earthquake-prone area. This place is home to dozens of rare, endemic and endangered species, and sits within the northern buffer zone of the mega-biodiverse Cotacachi-Cayapas National Park.

RIC is working with local environmental organisations to challenge the impending Environmental Impact Study which will decide the mine's future.

Part of this challenge involves hiring experts to assess the risks of Cascabel's proposed "block cave" mining technique. This is a controversial method of ore extraction which involves the use of explosives to dig an underground chamber. The chamber is lined with scaffolding. The ore above is detonated and falls into the chamber, from where it is extracted using slurry pipelines. Block cave mining is incredibly water and energy intensive. Where it has been used in other parts of the world, it has contaminated ground water and caused geophysical damage, including subsidence.

In July RIC hired an independent expert on mining waste management, Stephen Emerman, to write a report on SolGold's prefeasibility study for the project. Read this here.

Melbourne Rainforest Action Group have published this informative blog outlining the report and its implications on the Friends of the Earth Australia website. 

Local communities in this area don't want or need mining as an economic mainstay. This native plant nursery is an example of one of several agroforestry initiatives in Cahuasquí, just east of the Cascabel mining project. Photo provided by Peter Shear.

Exposing Hancock Prospecting's alleged human rights and environmental abuses

In June 2024 volunteers at Melbourne Rainforest Action Group published a comprehensive report on the timeline of Australian mining giant Hancock Prospecting's alleged corruption and civil rights violations in northwest Ecuador from 2017-2024.

Hancock Prospecting is operating via its 100%-owned Ecuadorian subsidiary, Hanrine.

Our report coincided with the media attention given to Australia's richest billionaire and owner of Hancock Prospecting (when she objected to a satirical portrait in the National Art Gallery and subsequently ensured that the "unflattering" picture went viral all over the world). Read this here!

We are currently still supporting a number of civil and legal actions in the precinct of Buenos Aires. This is the area most impacted by the activities of Hanrine and the illegal mining, violence and crime which has flourished since gold was first found locally in 2018.

We are also supporting numerous community-led initiatives in reforestation, biodiversity surveying and local economy-building. 

A large portion of this support has been made possible by two generous grants from our Australian partner Flow - Billions of Blossoms.

Residents of the community of El Triunfo, Buenos Aires Precinct, gather to protest against Hanrine in 2022. El Triunfo is one of the communities in this region most impacted by mining and the wave of crime and violence which has come with it. Photo: Liz Downes

Citizen science projects grow local environmental knowledge in Intag 

Our long time friend, rainforest defender Carlos Zorrilla continues to do great work with his local conservation organisation, DECOIN, training citizen conservationists in wildlife monitoring around the mining-threatened area of Intag.

Carlos: "This is part of the group that you helped finance a while back. They’re still going strong, and this is part of a workshop on learning to identify amphibians finishing up tonight ... 

This was a collaboration between Centro Jambato, EcoForense and DECOIN. Andrea Teran from Centro Jambato led the workshop. In total 32 people participated from three different communities… it was a total success… we want to expand the same program to another community within the area of influence (mining concession) Cerro Pelado."

A group of young students test water quality in the area of Junín, Intag, which has for decades been threatened by one mining company after another. Photo provided by Carlos Zorrilla.

Finally - justice for land defenders!

For three years RIC has supported a non-profit legal aid organisation, APT-Norte - the Association of Landholders and Farmers of Northern Ecuador - with their vital community work in the mining-riddled northwestern provinces of Imbabura and Pichincha.

In August 2024, RIC's funds - enabled by our partner Flow - enabled APT-Norte to complete a long legal battle for the freedom of 60 residents of the town of Cahuasquí, criminalised in 2022 for peacefully protesting against the unsolicited entry of an Australian mining company.

APT-Norte is working with local governments and human rights organisations in the embattled Intag region, to build a case around the corrupt dealings of mining companies, who are alleged to have gained exploration concessions illegally. 

In May 2024, farmers and communities in several neighbourhoods of Intag banded together to declare their region "Mining Free". 

Sign in the town of Cuellaje, Intag: "Stop mining!" Photo provided by Peter Shear.

Passing of Los Cedros defender, Josef DeCoux

On May 20th, 2024, we were surprised and saddened by the death of our friend José, founder and stalwart defender of the Los Cedros cloud forest reserve and all her species.

RIC has worked in partnership with José since 1989 to protect the reserve.

José battled cancer throughout the campaign to get the reserve's Rights for Nature recognised by Ecuador's Constitutional Court. He not only kept up a relentless work schedule, but dealt with ongoing threats and incursions from the mining company whilst on heavy chemotherapy.

After the December 2021 court win, he rallied and put in another two and a half years of solid work to build a local and international team which will keep Los Cedros going - we hope - long into the future!

A beautiful tribute to José can be read here on Los Cedros Reserve's website.

Visit our Los Cedros page to read about the exciting plans being carried out for the forest's future in his legacy.

Josef DeCoux and the team at Los Cedros one year after the historic court win, with international visitors, Constitutional Court judges, and Schultzie the dog. Photo provided by Monserrate Salome.

CAMPAIGN 2022-23 RUNDOWN 

It's been a massive couple of years for RIC's campaign in Ecuador. We've supported numerous projects and campaigns throughout the country, made many new contacts, and are now expanding further with our efforts to help communities protect their lands, waters and biodiversity.

A historic court win for Los Cedros

In December 2021 Ecuador's Constitutional Court decided in favour of protection for the Los Cedros Biological Reserve - a spectacular tropical cloud forest in the country's Chocó biodiversity region, of which only remnants are left.

Seven of nine judges voted to revoke the environmental license of mining companies Cornerstone Capital Resources and ENAMI, forcing them to cease operations within the reserve. 

The Rainforest Information Centre founded Los Cedros in 1989, and ever since has supported manager Jose deCoux and a diverse local and international team of staff, volunteers and scientists to keep this irreplaceable forest and its myriad species safe from logging, poaching ... and now mining. 

The Constitutional Court ruling was a world first precedent for forests under threat of major extractive industries. It upholds Ecuador's unique Rights of Nature constitutional laws, as well as protecting four major waterways and the rights of local communities to a clean and safe environment.

Read more here!

Cascada pequeña, Los Cedros Reserve - some of the cleanest fresh water you can find anywhere. Photo: Liz Downes

April 2023 - Another Rights of Nature case win in Ecuador!

The Provincial Court of Imbabura has ruled that a mining company must immediately cease its controversial Llurimagua copper project.

This mine, if ever constructed, could destroy hundreds of hectares of cloud forests and waterways in the region of Intag.

The Court stated that the company's environmental impact statement, completed in 2014, was invalid due to violations of the rights of nature and the rights of affected communities to consultation. 

This win marks a major milestone in a legal battle spanning three years to stop the mine from going ahead. Intag's local communities have been fighting one company after another since the 1980s.

Over the past five years, the Rainforest Information Centre and Melbourne Rainforest Action Group have been two of several organisations helping out with funds for community assemblies, mobilisations and legal costs around the Llurimagua battle.

Last year, we helped cover some costs for three biodiversity surveys in the Llurimagua mining concession. Many endangered species were catalogued, counteracting the pathetic "environmental impact studies" done by the companies. One monkey was put on the Critically Endangered list.

The herpetologists found a specimen of what was originally thought to be the critically endangered Confusing Rocket Frog (Ectopoglossus confusus) but since has been determined to be a new species - named the Resistance Rocket Frog by popular vote from locals! 

Confusing rocket frog (Ectopoglossus confusus). Image: Carlos Zorrilla

Grants from Flow - Billions of Blossoms 

In 2022, Flow’s Billions of Blossoms program provided their first of several grants to RIC, specifically to support the development of a management plan at Los Cedros, with all its pollinator richness. This was gratefully used by Jose DeCoux and the team for facilitation of local community meetings, and legal costs for future-proofing the reserve’s boundaries.

In January 2023, Flow granted RIC a further $US 15,000! This has provided much-needed resources for three frontlines.

At Los Cedros, the grant supported ongoing work of establishing a community-based management plan for the reserve.

In Buenos Aires, the grant helped pay for the writing of two new legal cases. Both are based on the precedent of Los Cedros: rights of nature, rights to prior consultation, and rights to live in a clean environment. The funds have also enabled lawyers to continue work to gain amnesty for local farmers and their families persecuted by the mining company, and to protect their rights to their own lands and water. Visit this page to read more about the situation in Buenos Aires and how you can help!

Finally, a third of the funds paid for training of citizen scientists to monitor water quality and identify endangered species in Junín, where the mining company Codelco had its environmental license rescinded in April.

One of Ecuador's 4000 known species of orchids - a plant family which contains an enormous amount of endemism and symbiotic relationships with insect pollinators, barely touched by scientific research. 

Support of Waorani community with land rights and ecotourism work

Over the past five years, the Waorani community of Ñoneno, near the Yasuní region of the Ecuadorian Amazon, has been developing projects to protect their territory from numerous threats, including oil exploitation, poaching and colonisation.  RIC has a long history with the leaders of this struggle for autonomy. In the 90s RIC volunteers worked extensively with the Waorani and helped with a massive project of physically demarcating their ancestral lands.

In June 2022, we provided $1000 for a laptop for community leader and old friend of RIC, Nanto Huamoni. Nanto has been using it to collate and write coursework for Ñoneno’s ecotourism and cultural education projects.

In November, a RIC volunteer crowdfunded another $500 towards maintenance for a tourism lodge now owned by the community, in preparation for their first large group of visitors in January 2023. This lodge is situated 4 hours by canoe from the nearest town, in one of the most biologically intense places on the planet!

Next year RIC hopes to raise funds towards solar panels for the lodge and Ñoneno. 

Waorani leader, Alicia Cahuiya, with a rare tree marked to be cut down within an area gazetted for oil exploitation near Ñoneno

Field research trip 

In October-December 2022, RIC’s Ecuador campaign coordinator took a field trip. Some travel costs were covered by the support of RIC, the Melbourne Rainforest Action Group, and a generous donor.

The trip was a two month whirlwind, involving travelling to nine different provinces –crossing the Amazon region, cloud forests and the high Andes – visiting activist groups and communities impacted by transnational mining companies.

This was physically and mentally exciting and challenging. Ecuador is a country where it is possible to gain or lose 3000 metres of altitude in a single day. Also not to be underestimated is the diversity of available transport methods: bus, 4WD, cattle truck, mule, canoe, foot, or any combination of these in one journey.

Alpine "páramo" grasslands at 3,800 metres above sea level - one of the most ecologically important landscapes in Ecuador, providing carbon storage and habitat for hundreds of rare and endemic plant, insect and bird species, and the water source for rivers running to the coast and Amazon basin.

The findings of the field trip are still being collated, but suffice to say there are many incredible, resourceful and passionate people in Ecuador, who are dedicated to protecting their lands, waters, livelihoods, and ecosystems for future generations of all forms of life.

With serious fundraising efforts, RIC has the opportunity to support at least three emerging legal cases with the potential magnitude of Los Cedros, as well as continue to support communities and collectives on the ground with their mobilisation, education and conservation efforts.

The community of Buenos Aires, northwestern Ecuador, gathers to send a public rejection of Australian-owned mining company, Hanrine

Between mid 2017 and mid 2024, we have fundraised and sent approximately $130,000 to communities in Ecuador who are defending their lands, waters, biodiversity and human rights.

Again - if you'd like to support us to continue this work through 2024 and beyond,

please visit our crowdfund

Toisán Range cloud forest, Intag, Ecuador - threatened by BHP

For more information about the damage that grand-scale mining will do to biodiversity and ecosystem services, read this 2018 research paper published in the Journal of Tropical Conservation. 

For an overview of Australian involvement, written by members of MRAG, read: Australian mining companies plunder Ecuador's gold and copper

MRAG protests in collaboration with Latin American Solidarity Group at the International Mining and Resources Conference (IMARC), Melbourne, 2019

MORE REPORTS AND STUDIES

Neoliberalism versus justice on Ecuador's mining frontier  - Friends of the Earth Australia, 2018

Ecuador Endangered by Extreme Extractivism  - Jefferson Mecham et al (2017), commissioned by the Rainforest Information Centre

The extent of recent mining concessions in Ecuador - Roo Vandegrift et al (2017), commissioned by the Rainforest Information Centre

New mining concessions will severely decrease biodiversity and ecosystem services in Ecuador - Bitty Roy et al, 2018