Last week, Ecuador’s government said NO to a dolphinarium project that had been proposed for Salinas, a coastal Ecuadorian city. The Ecuadorian Animal Movement (MAN) challenged a Venezuelan corporation proposing to build the dolphinarium and import bottle nosed dolphins, which are listed in the CITES convention. MAN launched a campaign which received substantial public support in Ecuador, and their lawyer, Hugo Echeverria, included an argument that a dolphinarium was inconsistent with Ecuador’s constitution, which recognises the rights of nature. Defending the rights of nature was one of the reasons raised by the Ministry of the Environment, in prohibiting the development.
See the link to the statement in Spanish.
