Overview

• The new law grants private and foreign entities joint authority over conservation zones, triggering fears of weakened safeguards for biodiversity and Indigenous territories.
• President Noboa folded the independent Environment Ministry into the Ministry of Energy and Mines in mid-2025, a step officials justify as cost-cutting and efficiency-driven but that critics say undermines environmental oversight.
• A pending Organic Law for the Control of Irregular Capital Flows would require over 71,000 nonprofits to re-register and disclose foreign funding by August 28 or face automatic enactment, raising concerns of forced closures.
• Under a July agreement with Peru, Ecuador’s state oil company will link its southern Amazon reserves to the Norperuano pipeline, with drilling set to start in January 2026 and Indigenous nations warning of spill risks.
• Environmental and Indigenous groups have reactivated the Asamblea Nacional Socioambiental coalition and are mounting legal challenges, demonstrations and appeals to international bodies to resist the reforms.