ECUADOR Law and Practice Contributed by: Roque Bernardo Bustamante and Claudia Bustamante, Flor Bustamante Pizarro & Hurtado
2.2 Impact of Environmentally Protected Areas on Mining There are different types of environmentally protected areas throughout Ecuador. In most of them, mining is not possible; however, in certain buffer zones it may be possible with the Ministry of the Environment’s prior consent. The Ministry of the Environment manages the National System of Protected Areas, which guar - antees the conservation, management and sus - tainable use of biodiversity, as well as the func - tional connectivity of terrestrial, insular, marine, marine-coastal ecosystems and the rights of nature. Protected areas are priority spaces for conser - vation and sustainable development. Regional autonomous governments should incorporate protected areas into their land-use planning tools. The National Environmental Authority will carry out periodic technical evaluations in order to verify that the protected areas comply with the objectives recognised for them. If necessary and considering the results of such technical evalua - tions, the National Environmental Authority may delimit them or change their status, as appropri - ate. In all cases, the mine owner must obtain from the National Environmental Authority the Certificate of Intersection indicating the intersection of min - ing rights in relation to the National System of Protected Areas, Protected Forests and Vegeta - tion, State Forest Heritage or other conservation areas declared by the National Environmental Authority. Article 407 of the Constitution prohibits the extraction of non-renewable resources in pro -
The Intersection Certificate will be issued for the mining rights, among others authorised by the Ministry of the Environment, or for those cases in which the title holder requires only the envi - ronmental licence of the operating area. It is the responsibility of the mining title holder to contract an external consultant qualified by the Ministry of the Environment, who will be in charge of carrying out the Environmental Impact Study within which a technical file of the project must be included, a description of the study area and a complete description of the project prior to the beginning of any stage of exploration, exploi - tation or others. Likewise, in conjunction with the Environmen - tal Impact Study, it is necessary to carry out the Environmental Management Plan, which includes methods of evaluation and monitor - ing of the project, as well as a general schedule containing a budget within which the environ - mental policy requested by the same ministry is included. The Environmental Impact Study must identify, describe, quantify and evaluate, in a precise manner and according to the characteristics of each case, the foreseeable effects that the execution of the mining project will produce on the different environmental and socio-economic aspects. The Environmental Management Plan will also include aspects of monitoring, evaluation, moni - toring and contingency, partial closures of oper - ations and closure and abandonment of mining operations, with their respective programmes, schedules and budgets.
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