Ecuador is one of the world 17 megadiverse countries, with many indigenous flora and animals, including those from the Galápagos Islands. In recognition of its unique biological history, the new 2008 constitution is the world first to recognize legally enforceable natural rights.
Prior to the arrival of the Incas, various peoples had settled in what would become Ecuador. Archaeological evidence suggests that the Paleo-Indians first migration into the Americas occurred near the end of the last glacial period, approximately 16,500to13,000 years ago. The first humans to reach Ecuador may have traveled by land from North and Central America or by boat along the Pacific Ocean coastline.
Despite the fact that their languages were dissimilar, these communities formed similar cultures, each based on a different environment. The people of the coast mixed agriculture with fishing, hunting, and collecting; the people of the highland Andes developed a sedentary agricultural lifestyle; and the peoples of the Amazon basin relied on hunting and gathering, which was sometimes combined with agriculture and arboriculture.
The mestizo majority in Ecuador shapes the country main culture, which has Spanish roots like its ancestors but has also been influenced by Amerindian traditions and, in some cases, Spanish elements, non-Europeans, and Africans. Following the arrival of Europeans in 1499, Spanish colonists were the first and most significant wave of modern immigration to Ecuador. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, fewer Europeans and North Americans migrated to the country, as did Poles, Lithuanians, English, Irish, Croatians, and, in certain cases, Asians during and after WWII.
Ecuador Amerindian groups are to varying degrees integrated into mainstream society, but some, notably the more distant Amerindian tribes of the Amazon Basin, may continue to practice their own original cultures. More than 90% of the population speaks Spanish as their first language, with more than 98% speaking it as a first or second language. Part of Ecuador population speaks Amerindian languages, which are sometimes used as a second language. Two percent of the population solely speaks Amerindian languages.