Promoting Ecuadorian citizens' environmental rights and the rights of nature

Submitted By: Ecolex Corporación de Gestión y Derecho Ambiental
Date Opened:
October 14, 2014
Date Closed:
December 1, 2014

Ecuador is classified as one of the few mega-diverse countries in the world and has ecosystems ranging from coastal mangroves, Andean highlands, cloud forests and tropical rain forest, all home to amazing biodiversity. Ecolex is an Ecuadorian non-profit that promotes citizens' environmental rights, as well as nature's own rights, primarily through legal projects. We have an initiative called the "Linea Verde," which is a free telephone and email service where citizens can call or write to us, talk to a lawyer and make complaints about environmental damages (if someone is logging illegally or if a company is polluting a river, for example) or ask questions related to land rights, environmental rights, etc. We then take those complaints and process them with the proper authorities to find a solution to the environmental issue. We are interested in creating an app (in Spanish) that people here could use to send us their complaints.