Nature as a Subject of Rights: A Discourse Analysis on Ecuador's Constitutional Rights of Nature

Abstract

This thesis investigates whether and if so how the incorporation of a concept from an indigenous worldview is able to influence a country’s development model. The constitutional rights of nature in Ecuador are used as case. In 2008 Ecuador became the first country in the world to make nature a subject of rights, and they did this by invoking nature as la Pachamama, the Kichwa Mother Earth deity. This is a biocentric notion which challenges the modernist vision of nature as subject to human use. In this study the rights of nature are deemed as still open to interpretation however, and their meaning as attempted fixed in a discursive struggle. In interview data from relevant actors in Ecuador three different discourses on the rights of nature are identified. The Ecosocialist Discourse represents the rights of nature as a justification for continued struggle against the capitalist system. The Transformative Discourse represents the rights of nature as a potential instrument for a necessary global transformation of the human-nature relationship. The Anthropocentric Developmentalist Discourse represents the rights of nature as a possible form of stronger environmental regulation. The discourses’ influence on development policy is found to depend on scale. Elements from the Transformative Discourse are found in Ecuador’s overarching development ambitions, while the Anthropocentric Developmentalist Discourse is found to be the language of policy-making. This incorporation of a concept from a different non-modern ontology has opened up space for discursive agency, but its influence on Ecuador’s development model remains limited; policies are still developed within the parameters of an anthropocentric ontological framework.