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 the company EcuaCorriente S.A. (ECSA), which is in charge of 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 organizations defending their rights and livelihoods.

Mirador is the largest copper mining project in the country; it will host the largest tailings dam in the world and, according to Chinese sources, is expected to be "among the 20 most important copper mines in the world". Mirador is operated by the CRCC-Tongguan Investment consortium, comprised of two Chinese state-owned companies: China Railway Construction Corporation (CRCC) and Tongling Nonferrous Metals Group (TNMG), whose subsidiary in Ecuador is 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. All of these banks had binding obligations and non-binding commitments, guidelines, and international and corporate standards to assess, prevent, mitigate, and remedy the harm caused by ECSA to environmental defenders. Nevertheless, these were not implemented during the project's construction.

Chinese financial institutions have benefited from a convenient anonymity regarding their role and environmental and social responsibilities in the projects they finance worldwide. We hope this report will demonstrate and encourage Chinese banks to implement their obligations and commitments so that their loans do not harm those they claim to serve. We also hope that the facts described in this report will induce Chinese banks and their regulators to adopt a "Zero Tolerance" policy to prevent their clients from committing abuses and retaliating against environmental defenders anywhere in the world.