Rights of Nature

Concept

Status

"A dozen California communities are developing laws to recognize nature's rights, so too in New Mexico and Washington State. In 2008, the nation of Ecuador enshrined the rights of Pachamama (Mother Earth) into the national Constitution, and this year Bolivia is passing pass 11 separate laws." (http://www.alternet.org/story/150702/if_nature_had_rights_would_we_need_earth_day)

Discussion

By Shannon Biggs:

"In the eyes of the law, nature isn't a system governing our own wellbeing, its property--like a slave--to be owned and used by humans. Property can't have rights, which means it lacks the legal standing necessary go to court to halt devastating projects, or sue for restoration once the damage has been done. Meanwhile, corporations (which actually are property) use the Constitutional rights of people and bevy of other federal and state protections in order to force our communities, oceans, streams, forests and prairies to become sacrifice zones for profit.

To the residents of Pittsburgh, and a growing number of other communities, it is this kind of sanctioned corporate invasion that seems like utter madness.

Last November, the city council of Pittsburgh unanimously passed a cutting-edge law banning fracking while elevating community decision-making--and the rights of nature--above corporate "rights." They join over 125 communities in Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Maine, and Virginia who, with the assistance of the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF), have passed rights-based ordinances in order to take local control of their destinies.

The idea for rights of nature isn't new, and most species of the planet observe it naturally: Take what you need without destroying the ecosystem that sustains you. Laws recognizing the rights of nature do not protect individual bugs or trees, rather they stop the kind of development that interferes with the existence and vitality of local ecosystems. They create a welcome environment for sustainable enterprise, and empower decimated ecosystems to seek legal damages for restoration." (http://www.alternet.org/story/150702/if_nature_had_rights_would_we_need_earth_day)

Book

• Rights of Nature: The Case for a Universal Declaration of the Rights of Mother Earth

Obtain via http://onthecommons.org/www.canadians.org/rightsofnature/ ([1])

featuring essays by Margaret Atwood, Vandana Shiva, Desmond Tutu, Eduardo Galeano, Evo Morales Ayma, Maude Barlow, David Suzuki and others about the need for the UN to adopt strong policies to protect the planet.