Vilcamba’s Case and El Buen Vivir in the Constitution of Ecuador of 2008: legal pluralism and a new ecocentric paradigm

Abstract

The anthropocentric view leads the debates about the environment and the eurocentric values still prevailing over all other worldviews. However, the utopia of exclusive economic development is in crisis. In this context, a new ecocentric paradigm emerges as an alternative to the anthropocentrism, from the practices and the knowledge of indigenous peoples of the Andes and the ethics of buen vivir. This essay will examine the new physiocentric approach of the relationship between humans and nature, embodied by Constitution of Ecuador of 2008, which recognized the rights of nature (Pacha Mama or Pachamama).