Esperanza Martínez Yánez is an Ecuadorian activist, biologist and lawyer. She is a member and one of the founders of Acción Ecológica, and is also a member of Oilwatch, the Permanent Working Group on Alternatives to Development and the Ecosocial Pact of the South. Esperanza is a defender and promoter of the rights of Nature from the perspectives of culture, biology and law, as well as anthropology and politics. She supports indigenous women defenders of environmental issues and was one of the five women human rights defenders who denounced her case before the IACHR in October 2015. She is the author of several books and articles in which she invites us to re-enchant the world, not only to recover what is human, but also the meaning of life itself. Esperanza holds a Master’s degree in Rights of Nature and Intercultural Justice (Universidad Andina Simón Bolívar, Quito) and an honorary doctorate (Universidad Rovira i Virgili, Catalonia).
