Los derechos de la naturaleza en la jurisprudencia de la Corte Constitucional Ecuatoriana. Reconocimiento y evolución histórica

Since 2008, Ecuador has constitutionally recognized Nature as a rights holder; however, the Constitutional Court has played a preponderant role in elabora-ting its content in a constitutional State of rights and justice such as the Ecuadorian one. The article studies the historical evolution of constitutional case law in this matter. The research critically studied the main judgments using three variables: heritage forests, water bodies, and wildlife. The paper presents the main results, emphasizing the cases of Bosque Protector Los Cedros, due to the use of the principle of prevention for the recognition of the rights of Nature, and Estrellita, in which the recognition of wild animals as rights holders was discussed. The article concludes that, despite the progress in the elaboration of the content of these rights, it is necessary that academia, professional as-sociations, and lawyers in free practice fully understand it comprehensively and do not try to benefit from isolated paragraphs of the judgments, causing uncertainties and erroneous interpretations, under the pretext of the protection of the rights of Nature.