With the adoption of a new constitution in 2008 under president Rafael Correa, Ecuador became the first country in the world to enshrine a set of codified Rights of Nature and to inform a more clarified content to those rights. Articles 10 and Chapter 7, Articles 71–74 of the Ecuadorian Constitution recognize the inalienable rights of ecosystems to exist and flourish, give people the authority to petition on the behalf of nature, and requires the government to remedy violations of these rights.
Sumac kawsay, in Spanish, meaning "good living", rooted in the cosmovisión (or worldview) of the Quechua peoples of the Andes, describes a way of life that is community-centric, ecologically-balanced and culturally-sensitive.[1] The concept is related to tradition of legal and political scholarship advocating legal standing for the natural environment.[2] The rights approach is a break away from traditional environmental regulatory systems, which regard nature as property.[3]
Ecuador's Rights of Nature embodies the indigenous sumak kawsay principles, giving Pachamama constitutional rights to protect and restore its environment.