We have been very busy!

Ecoforensic CIC is now up and running – but we have done a huge amount of background work. A quick update – thanks to funding support from the University of Sussex (Sussex Sustainability Research Programme & Higher Education Impact Fund). We spent 5 weeks in Ecuador to explore the potential of our idea – the thought that future legal cases under the rights of Nature will require new knowledge, a new interdisciplinary field we have called ‘Ecological Forensics’.

Over 5 weeks we travelled to meet partners in their ‘ecosystems’ – from the cloudforest of the Western Andes to the lowland rainforests of Esmeraldas Province and back to the Eastern Andes. We ran a workshop bringing people together to understand what ecological information is actually important in protecting ecosystems under this new emerging of the ‘rights of Nature’ paradigm and developed a training curriculum for our new network of paraecologists. It is the paraecologist network that is at the forefront of the data collection to understand the undiscovered and incredible biological diversity of Ecuadorian ecosystems, and vital in any legislative processes to protect them. The workshop venue at Oho y Media in Quito was a last minute, and urgent change from Los Cedros Reserve, much to disappointment of all. The reason was the ‘Paro’ or strike, that saw indigenous groups, students and social organisation bring the national road network to a halt – shutting down Quito – and highlighting the active role of society in Ecuadorian politics in their demands for Justice! This was to the annoyance of Jose Decoux who had already catered for our group ……

Luckily the pantry of food for the 25 + attendees (cause of the annoyance, as it needed to be transported up to the reserve, only to be transported back down – not so easy when the mode of transport is mules up a 2 hour mountain track), didn’t go to waste.

Reflecting back it is still incredible to think how, in February, we started with an idea and now we are in an incredibly fortunate position, where we can discuss opportunities to scale. We have literally hit the ground running. We started with a short research study to explore the importance of ecological information in ‘Rights of Nature’, to identify and surface ecological information important for legal practitioners in a language and format that is most helpful, to individually visiting potential partners in Ecuador that eventually culminated in a workshop bringing together a group of incredible people. It is never easy to describe (and bring to life) each memorable experience spent with incredibly passionate individuals, committed to their cause and in the forefront of innovative ways of protecting nature – our respects to them all as they remain positive in face of, sometimes extreme challenges, to their efforts in conservation, ecosystem protection and restoration.

So here are a few highlights….

This is only the beginning…

Ecoforensic is a non-profit Community Interest Company (CIC). Every penny we raise goes directly into our efforts towards improving access to forensic ecological data and defending the rights of Nature around the world.

If you’re a community organisation, protected area, an academic, legal institution or a specialist in ecology and interested in supporting the efforts of paraecologists for the ‘Rights of Nature’, or want to know how you can become one and start contributing data, click below to find out more.