The article was written to show the interplay between the state, mining multinational corporations (MNCs) and local community in Ecuador, with the central objective of showing the changing role of nation-state in environmental governance. It was organized in the following way. Firstly it addressed a sovereign nation-state in retrospect and its association with the natural environment. This encompassed the behavior of traditional nation-state, the power it has been endowed with and its position in today’s global environmental politics. As the growing interdependence between states is significantly facilitated by multinational corporations (MNCs), information flow and transportation, the power relation between state and MNCs was explained. In order to support arguments with empirical evidence, a documentary movie that shows the interplay between indigenous local community, MNCs and the state was reviewed from the state of Ecuador. The documentary movie “When Clouds Clear” illustrates the mining effect on indigenous community of Junin district and the natural environment in Intag valley, and there is an observed decline in the power of the traditional sovereign state while MNCs are becoming powerful and cause a greater threat to the sustainability of the indigenous people’s life and natural environment.

Keywords: Nation state, MNCs, Ecuador, environment, sovereignty.