A sprawling Ecuadorian forest reserve in the Choco Andino Biosphere Reserve, home to some 600 species of birds and 270 species of mammals, is at the center of a tug-of-war between environmentalists and miners who see it as a way out of poverty. A year ago, residents and environmentalists won a hard-fought victory in a referendum that banned all metal mining in the forest.
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00:00It depends on the government, but from the municipality of Quito, we created the...
00:05Frogs, monkeys, the Cebus equatorialis...
00:31It's true, the people were forceful, 70% of the population of the district told the authorities...
00:39That in the Chocó Andino, in the biosphere reserve, in these territories, we don't want mining.
00:44And that has to be respected.
01:01In such a small country, there are many species.
01:16For example, we are in a global climate crisis.
01:22And these are the ecosystems that somehow still allow life to exist on the planet.
01:28There are fragile ecosystems, very fragile.
01:31You are seeing the hummingbirds, for example.
01:33Imagine these species, these little animals, so small.
01:36What implies an explosion to be able to break the rock, the opening of a road...
01:42To be able to put big trucks, tractors.
01:44It would be terrible, it would end all this biodiversity.
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