Sussex lecturer to give evidence to protect endangered forests

Dr Mika Peck, a senior lecturer in biology at the University of Sussex, will help to lay the case for protecting Los Cedros Biological Reserve in Ecuador, which is under threat from large-scale metal mining.

Ecuador is the only country in the world to have enshrined the “rights of nature” in its constitution but it has rarely been tested in court.

The reserve in Los Cedros includes nearly 17,000 acres of primary cloud forests and the area is one of the most biologically diverse habitats in the world. It is home to more than 200 species at high risk of extinction, five of which are regarded as critically endangered by the Ecuadorian government.

Although the Los Cedros reserve is among a national network of Protected Forests, the government has still promoted metal mining in recent years.

In 2005, Dr Peck began training indigenous people in Los Cedros to be habitat ecologists in an effort to protect the critically endangered brown-headed spider monkey.

The brown headed spider monkey. Photo: Etienne Littlefair

The Sussex lecturer said: “Los Cedros is a truly amazing place.

“The remoteness and high-quality of the habitat explain why there are six species of cats and three species of primate, including some of the last critically endangered brown-headed spider moneys in the world – as well as the endangered Andean spectacled bear.

“But that’s not all – new species are being discovered every year.”

Ecuador is an attractive place for mining exploration as it has a lot of mineral wealth, particularly copper and gold.

Dr Mika Peck

Mining companies BHP and Cornerstone Capital Resources were given permits to operate in the area in 2017 but last year Protected Forest authorities won a case for an Action of Protection in a provincial court, which stripped the companies of their permits. However, mining continued in the area in direct contravention of the order.

Now the Constitutional Court is taking up the case and the legal team hopes to evoke protections for nature at a national level to protect an ecosystem from large-scale mining.

Dr Joanna Miller Smallwood, research fellow at the University of Sussex, said: “Ecuador has taken the bold step of incorporating the rights of nature in its constitution and the court has a crystal clear opportunity to set a strong precedent, underlining that mining in protected forests violates national and international laws.”

“This ruling has important implications for the six million acres of protected forests in Ecuador.

“It is an opportunity for other nations to follow suit and move beyond the use of inadequate laws which only protect nature for its monetary worth, towards laws which incorporate more equitable understandings of nature that respect its intrinsic worth and recognise nature’s fundamental importance for planetary processes.”