Ecuador Forest Saved by Constitutional Protections

FEATURING PETER YEUNG - In 2008, Ecuador became the first nation in the world to vote on a new Constitution that centered the rights of nature and of natural systems to “exist, flourish, and evolve.” That document has had an impact on the Los Cedros Protective Forest, a protected region rich in biodiversity, located in the northwest Ecuadorian Andes. In a story for YES!, award winning journalist Peter Yeung explains how Los Cedros’s rights as a forest have prevailed against extractive industries thanks to its constitutional protections.