UDTR Global Rights of Nature Radar

Rights of Nature in the Andean Community: Foundations, Constitutional Models, and Enforcement

Identification

Public canonical key

doi:10.3390/encyclopedia6100217

Authors

Alexander Fernando Haro Sarango · Persi Vera Zelada · Arterio Genaro Merchán Ruilova · Jorge Alejandro Tejada Carrera · Denis Javier Arangurí Cayetano · Oscar Tarrillo Saldaña · Fanny del Rocío Idrogo Vásquez

Reported year

2026

Reported language

en · und

Source type

article

First detected

2026-11-09T19:04:47.904082+00:00

Last metadata observation

2026-11-10T16:58:51.371028+00:00

Last HTTP verification

Not checked

Institutions reported by the source

Departamento Académico de Ciencias Ambientales, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Chota, Cajamarca 06003, Peru · Departamento Académico de Contabilidad, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Chota, Cajamarca 06003, Peru · Departamento Académico de Contabilidad, Universidad Nacional de Cajamarca, Cajamarca 06003, Peru · Departamento Académico de Energía, Física y Mecánica, Universidad Nacional del Santa, Ancash 02710, Peru · Escuela Profesional de Contabilidad, Universidad Peruana Unión, Lima 15464, Peru · National University of Cajamarca · Unidad Tecnológica, Telconet S.A., Machala 070201, Ecuador · Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Chota · Universidad Nacional del Santa · Universidad Peruana Unión

Reported affiliation countries

PE

Documentary abstract — original language

The rights of nature have transformed Andean environmental law by challenging the assumption that only human interests can organize constitutional protection. This narrative legal review examines that transformation across Ecuador, Bolivia, Colombia, and Peru, the four members of the Andean Community. The review analyzes a curated corpus of 91 academic, constitutional, legislative, judicial, regional, and international sources through four lenses: legal subjecthood, ecological normativity, intercultural legitimacy, and institutional enforceability. The comparison identifies four distinct pathways. Ecuador constitutionalized nature as a rights-bearing subject and subsequently developed an increasingly specific body of constitutional jurisprudence. Bolivia combined plurinational constitutionalism with statutory rights of Mother Earth and a state-centered framework for integral development in harmony with nature. Colombia reached comparable outcomes through judicial construction, especially through biocultural rights and guardianship arrangements for ecosystems. Peru retained a predominantly anthropocentric environmental-rights model, although constitutional doctrine, municipal initiatives, and reform proposals reveal a growing ecocentric opening. Across the subregion, formal recognition is neither necessary nor sufficient for ecological effectiveness, understood here as the capacity of legal rules and remedies to prevent, halt, or reverse the degradation of protected ecological functions and processes. Outcomes depend on standing, representation, scientific and Indigenous knowledge, remedial design, monitoring, budgets, and the capacity to confront extractive political economies. Andean Community instruments provide a valuable regional layer for biodiversity, genetic resources, and environmental cooperation, but they do not yet harmonize the legal status of nature. The review concludes that the strongest future model is a plural and enforceable ecological constitutionalism: one that protects nature’s intrinsic value, preserves human and collective environmental rights, embeds intercultural participation, and translates judicial declarations into measurable restoration and non-regression duties.

Identifiers

OPENALEX

W7216064475

DOI

10.3390/encyclopedia6100217

ISSN

2673-8392

Documentary context

Documentary family

Scholarship

Source-reported types

article · reference-entry

Jurisdictions studied — explicit sources

BO · CO · EC · PE

Natural entities mentioned

Ecosystem · Mother Earth

Entity mentions are not evidence of legal recognition. Jurisdiction studied is separate from author affiliation country.

Sources

DOAJ · Record 1

OpenAlex · Record 1 · Record 2

• DOI · https://doi.org/10.3390/encyclopedia6100217
• OpenAlex · https://openalex.org/W7216064475

Documented bibliographic relations

Source-declared references and links; they do not establish legal support or UGLC qualification. Up to 20 outgoing references are displayed.

• LA SENDA BIOCÉNTRICA: VALORES INTRÍNSECOS, DERECHOS DE LA NATURALEZA Y JUSTICIA ECOLÓGICA · CITES
• openalex:w1518059929 · CITES
• openalex:w2021883551 · CITES
• openalex:w2041486751 · CITES
• Development for a postneoliberal era? Sumak kawsay, living well and the limits to decolonisation in Ecuador · CITES
• Nuevas narrativas constitucionales en Bolivia y Ecuador: el buen vivir y los derechos de la naturaleza · CITES
• El modelo ecológico alternativo latinoamericanoentre protección del derecho humano al medio ambiente y reconocimiento de los derechos de la naturaleza · CITES
• Can Rights of Nature Make Development More Sustainable? Why Some Ecuadorian lawsuits Succeed and Others Fail · CITES
• Somewhere between Rhetoric and Reality: Environmental Constitutionalism and the Rights of Nature in Ecuador · CITES
• openalex:w2801657541 · CITES
• Living in Harmony with Nature? A Critical Appraisal of the Rights of Mother Earth in Bolivia · CITES
• Constructing Rights of Nature Norms in the US, Ecuador, and New Zealand · CITES
• El desarrollo de los derechos de la naturaleza en el derecho ambiental · CITES
• El reconocimiento de la naturaleza como Sujeto de Derecho, a través de una reforma constitucional: una mirada de reconciliación del hombre con la naturaleza · CITES
• La Pachamama o la naturaleza como sujeto de derechos. Asimetrías en el constitucionalismo del “buen vivir” de América Latina · CITES
• Análisis y propuesta para el reconocimiento de los derechos de la naturaleza · CITES
• Los derechos de la naturaleza y la necesidad de transitar hacia una nueva ontología · CITES
• How Ecuador's Courts Are Giving Form and Force to Rights of Nature Norms · CITES
• La subjetividad jurídica de la naturaleza en el nuevo constitucionalismo andino: los casos de Ecuador, Bolivia y Colombia · CITES
• Los derechos de la naturaleza: casos “Manglares” y “Bosque Protector Los Cedros” (Tema Central) · CITES

0 incoming references within the detected corpus

Documentary status

Relevance pending

Library

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