The Amazonian Community of Social Action “Cordillera del Cóndor Mirador” (CASCOMI), with the support of Latinoamérica Sustentable (LAS), presents the report: The Situation of Environmental Defenders and Responsibilities of Chinese Banks in the Mirador Mining Project. The report describes the challenges faced by community environmental defenders due to the systematic, irregular, and illegal practices of EcuaCorriente S.A. (ECSA), the company responsible for the Mirador mining project in Ecuador. The execution of this project has caused, and continues to cause, irreversible harm to the safety, dignity, and integrity of individuals and local organisations defending their rights and livelihoods.

Mirador is the largest copper mining project in the country, operated by the CRCC-Tongguan Investment consortium, which comprises two Chinese state-owned companies: China Railway Construction Corporation (CRCC) and Tongling Nonferrous Metals Group (TNMG), with its subsidiary in Ecuador being ECSA. These Chinese companies received several loans from the China Development Bank; the Bank of China; the Agricultural Bank of China; the Export-Import Bank of China; Huishang Bank; China Merchants Bank; the China Construction Bank; and the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, all of which directly or indirectly supported the execution of the project.

The report urges Chinese banking institutions to fulfil their responsibility and commitment to avoiding lending practices that harm the people they are supposed to serve. It expects Chinese banks and their regulators to adopt a ‘zero tolerance’ policy to prevent their clients from repressing and retaliating against environmentalists worldwide.

The Business & Human Rights Resource Centre invited Corriente Ecuatoriana and its parent companies, along with the other companies mentioned in the report, including eight Chinese banking institutions that may have provided loans to the Mirador project, to comment on the report. No companies have responded.