Community action/Ecuador

Location data
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Location Ecuador
Coordinates 1° 20' 23.16" S, 79° 22' 0.11" W

The aim of this page is to recognise, celebrate and encourage the self-empowerment of community agency networks (CANs) and community groups' activism for climate, environment and many other sustainability topics across Ecuador.

News

Ecuador
Latin America
Earth
  • News Ecuador makes progress in legalizing indigenous lands to curb Amazon deforestation, efeverde.com (Dec 02, 2025)
  • News Ecuador’s Voters Protect Rights of Nature, Reject Proposal to Rewrite Constitution, insideclimatenews.org (Nov 17, 2025)
  • News Fresh water and wildlife brought back to degraded páramos in Ecuador, Ana Cristina Alvarado, news.mongabay.com (Aug 07, 2025)
Read more
  • News Stingless bees from the Amazon granted legal rights in world first, theguardian.com (Dec 29, 2025)
  • News Climate disasters displaced 250 million people in past 10 years, UN report finds, theguardian.com (Nov 09, 2025) — Floods, storms and droughts have uprooted people across the globe as rising temperatures intensify conflict and hunger
  • News The Guardian view on worsening extreme weather: the injustice of the climate crisis grows ever clearer, Editorial, theguardian.com (Nov 07, 2025)
  • News Paris Court Holds Historic Climate Trial in Case Against TotalEnergies, insideclimatenews.org (Feb 19, 2026)
  • News Introducing Katcha: An African Democratic Innovation Network, demnext.substack.com (Feb 19, 2026)
  • News The planet’s other forest crisis, latimes.com (Feb 19, 2026)

International events

Global or International events

  • Event Feb 02, 2026 (Mon) — World Wetlands Day, Feb 2, annually, worldwetlandsday.org
  • Event Feb 20, 2026 (Fri) — World Day of Social Justice, Feb 20 each year, un.org
  • Event February 21 - March 1, 2026 (Sat - Sun) — Real Bread Week, annual, international celebration of additive-free bread and the people behind its rise, sustainweb.org

2021-2030, UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, International community action events

Cosmolocal discovery club

Each week 3 different short videos from across the world.

Community networks, Community action/Finland, Community action/Peru / ...This week's featured UK videos / ... read more about Cosmolocalism

Ecuador video

Networks, sustainability initiatives and community involvement

  • Neighbourhood initiatives across Quito

Ecovillages

Organisations working with communities

[Eco-Libre]
Eco-Libre

Eco-Libre is a volunteer-run project that designs libre technology for sustainable communities.

Eco-Libre’s mission is to research, develop, document, teach, build, and distribute open-source technology that sustainably enfranchises communities’ human rights.

Acción Ecológica is one of the main environmental organizations in Ecuador. It is based in Quito, and was founded by Ivonne Yánez.

It campaigns on a range of issues including oil extraction, exploration and pipeline transport, Amazon rainforest protection, food sovereignty, biofuels and plantations for carbon offsets.

Visions

Amazon Sacred Headwaters Initiative, added 16:45, 22 March 2022 (UTC)

Food activism

la Red de Guardianes de Semillas (the Seed Savers' Network)

Ethical consumerism

Sustainable tourism: intagturismo.com

Sustainable transport

Cuenca's tramway is the largest public transport system in the city and the first modern tramway in Ecuador. It was inaugurated on March 8, 2019. It has 20.4 kilometers (12.7 mi) and 27 stations. It will transport 120,000 passagers daily. Its route starts in the south of Cuenca and ends in the north at the Parque Industrial neighbourhood.

Cycling activism

The Ciclopaseo is a project created by Biciaccion Foundation. It was administered by this organization from 2003 until 2007, from there it was organized by the local organization Ciclopolis until 2017. Nowadays the local traffic law enforcement organisation (Agencia Metropolitana de Tránsito by the Spanish name) is administering the project. A route of 30 km running from the North to South of the city is closed to traffic every Sunday from 8 am until 2 pm to give preference to cyclists and pedestrians. The project is run in cooperation with the Municipality and features diverse locations of the city from Carolina Park, Ejido Park the Historic Center of Quito, Avenue Rio Amazonas, and The Panecillo. [1]

Ecological restoration

This page is the beginnings of a portal for Ecuador community action in response to Ecological emergency.

Towards sustainable economies

FLOK Society Free/Libre Open Knowledge Society, designing a world for the commons. Diseñando un cambio de matriz productiva hacia la sociedad del conocimiento libre, común y abierto - FLOK Society (EN) (wiki)

See also: Open-source hardware for science in Ecuador

News archive

  • News Ecuador makes progress in legalizing indigenous lands to curb Amazon deforestation, efeverde.com (Dec 02, 2025)
  • News Ecuador’s Voters Protect Rights of Nature, Reject Proposal to Rewrite Constitution, insideclimatenews.org (Nov 17, 2025)
  • News Fresh water and wildlife brought back to degraded páramos in Ecuador, Ana Cristina Alvarado, news.mongabay.com (Aug 07, 2025)
  • News A map, a myth and a pre-Incan lagoon: the man who brought water back to a drought-ridden town, theguardian.com (Jun 13, 2025)
  • News Landmark Ruling on Uncontacted Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Strikes at Oil Industry, insideclimatenews.org (Mar 13, 2025)
  • News A Court Says Coastal Marine Ecosystems Have Intrinsic Value—and Legal Rights, insideclimatenews.org (Jan 17, 2025)
  • News Plastic-choked rivers in Ecuador are being cleared with conveyor belts, BBC Future (Apr 22, 2024)
  • News How Jocotoco Foundation, an Ecuadorian non-profit protects 10% of the world’s bird species, news.mongabay.com (Dec 11, 2023)
  • News Agroforestry chocolate helping save the world’s most endangered rainforest, by Liz Kimbrough, news.mongabay.com (Sep 12, 2023)
  • News Ecuadorians vote to halt oil drilling in biodiverse Amazonian national park, theguardian.com (Aug 21, 2023)
  • News Ecuador court upholds ‘rights of nature,’ blocks Intag Valley copper mine, news.mongabay.com (Mar 31, 2023) — by Liz Kimbrough
  • News "A floating, multifunctional space for a community": Ecuador's Santay Observatory tests out residence on water, The Daily Alternative (Nov 04, 2022)
  • News Nature surpassing nation: the Amazon Sacred Headwaters shows how a bioregion can transcend borders, The Daily Alternative (Mar 14, 2022)
  • Waorani People Win Landmark Legal Victory Against Ecuadorian Government, Apr 26, 2019...amazonfrontlines.org
  • One Ecuadorian City Is Converting Its Entire Bus Fleet To Electric By March 2019, Nov 14, 2018...CleanTechnica
  • Ecuador's "citizen revolution", Aug 7, 2017...@TheNextSystem
  • What Every Country Can Learn From Ecuador, May 17, 2015...ThinkProgress
  • Ecuador, Open Knowledge, and 'Buen Vivir': Interview With Michel Bauwens, December 16, 2013...doorsofperception.com
  • Bauwens Joins Ecuador in Planning a Commons-based, Peer Production Economy, September 20, 2013...David Bollier
  • Is this the new economics utopia? Saamah Abdallah, Researcher, Centre for Well-being, neweconomics.org, August 31, 2011.
  • Ecuador Approves New Constitution: Voters Approve Rights of Nature, Ecuador Follows Lead of U.S. Communities: First Country in the World to Shift to Rights-Based Environmental Protection, Working With Legal Defense Fund...celdf.org, September 28, 2008.

About Ecuador

Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It also includes the Galápagos Province which contains the Galápagos Islands in the Pacific, about 1,000 kilometers (621 mi) west of the mainland. The country's capital is Quito and its largest city is Guayaquil.

The land that comprises modern-day Ecuador was once home to several groups of indigenous peoples that were gradually incorporated into the Inca Empire during the 15th century. The territory was colonized by the Spanish Empire during the 16th century, achieving independence in 1820 as part of Gran Colombia, from which it emerged as a sovereign state in 1830. The legacy of both empires is reflected in Ecuador's ethnically diverse population, with most of its 17.8 million people being mestizos, followed by large minorities of Europeans, Native American, African, and Asian descendants. Spanish is the official language spoken by a majority of the population, although 13 native languages are also recognized, including Quechua and Shuar.

Near you

External links

Page data
Authors Phil Green
License CC-BY-SA-3.0
Cite as Phil Green, Lonny Grafman (2006–2025). "Community action/Ecuador". Appropedia. Retrieved February 26, 2026.