As reported in Victories for Communities: Ecuadorean protected area
Developers of the Junin project, a potentially devastating mining project in the Intag region of Ecuador, have been sent back to the drawing board. Canada's Ascendant Copper Corporation proposes to mine copper near Cotacachi-Cayapas Ecological Reserve, a protected area in northern Ecuador that includes a cloud forest and one of the world’s most biologically diverse ecosystems.
Isabela Figueroa, an attorney with Defensa y Conservacion Ecologica de Intag (DECOIN), called on ELAW to review the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for the exploration phase of the project. ELAW found major flaws in the EIA and helped DECOIN convince authorities that the community should be consulted early in the project planning process and that the mining proposal should be considered as a whole, without segmenting out the exploration phase. Ecuador's Ministry of Energy and Mines rejected the EIA due to insufficient consultation with affected communities and a lack of information on the project's impact on local forests and the threatened Brown-headed Spider Monkey (Ateles fusciceps). The company must now consult with the local people and address the flaws in the EIA.