The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund(CELDF) provides a timeline illustrating the global evolution of rights-of-nature initiatives and laws. From the 1970s onward, the number of cases has grown rapidly through 2022.
“Led by Indigenous peoples, the rights of nature movement has grown dramatically over the last two decades, from constitutional protections in Ecuador to national legislation and court rulings in Spain, New Zealand, Panama, India, and beyond,” pointed out Inside Climate News.
Within this article, we explore a few significant examples of countries that have embraced such initiatives.
Ecuador
In 2008, Ecuador became the first pioneering country to recognize the rights of nature in its constitution. Under Chapter 7, Articles 71 to 74, “Pachamama,” or Mother Earth, is granted the right to exist and to “maintain and generate its cycles, structure, functions, and its processes in evolution.” Under this change, individuals and communities can bring legal action if these rights are violated, holding both public and private entities accountable.
The constitutional provision, which was strongly influenced by Ecuador’s Indigenous movement, “echoes core… [tenets] of ecological science,” according to Inside Climate News, and has helped nature prevail “over mining companies and polluting industries in dozens of lawsuits there.”
New Zealand
On March 16, 2017, the Whanganui River was the first river in the modern world to gain the same legal rights as a human person. This concluded a nearly 150-year battle for the Māori people, who drew their mauri (life force) from the river. The Ruruku Whakatupua—Deed of Settlement recognizes the river as an “indivisible and living whole comprising the Whanganui River from the mountains to the sea, incorporating its tributaries and its physical and metaphysical elements.”
India
A few days after the New Zealand decision, the Uttarakhand High Court in India granted legal personhood to the Ganga and Yamuna rivers, as they were in danger of losing their existence. Both the Ganges and its tributary, the Yamuna, were severely polluted. Hindus worship Ganga Mata, or “the mother,” and it is a lifeline for more than 500 million people.
However, the state government of Uttarakhand challenged the ruling in India’s Supreme Court, objecting that the decision was legally unsustainable. In July 2017, the Supreme Court overturned the earlier ruling by the high court.
Colombia
Colombia has adopted an ecocentric approach that understands that human rights and healthy environments are intimately connected. Its Constitutional Court has recognized the Atrato River (2016) “a legal subject with rights to protection, conservation, maintenance, and restoration,” and the country’s Supreme Court ruled the Colombian Amazon (2018) ecosystem “as a subject of rights.”
Colombia utilizes a unique constitutional mechanism, the tutela, which allows individuals to request protection of their fundamental rights, including the right to a healthy environment. This mechanism has been important in advancing the rights of nature through legal action.
Bangladesh
In 2019, the High Court of Bangladesh, which was hearing a public interest litigation, decided that the Turag River and all 700 rivers in the country were “living entities” with rights as “legal persons.” To implement this landmark decision, the National River Conservation Commission was appointed in loco parentis and charged with preventing pollution and encroachment. These rights can be enforced against both private and public (government) entities. This decision was upheld by the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh in 2020.
The United States
Actions in support of the rights of nature are found at the local level rather than at the state or federal levels. It is a bottom-up approach used by a growing number of concerned communities and tribal nations.
Tamaqua Borough, Pennsylvania, granted legal rights of nature in 2006, which were used to ban toxic sewage dumping as a violation of these rights. Meanwhile, in 2010, the city council of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, unanimously passed an ordinance banning fracking and recognizing the rights of nature, becoming “the first major municipality in the United States” to do so.
According to CELDF, multiple communities in several states have enacted rights-of-nature laws. Among them is the remote and sparsely populated county of Mora, New Mexico. In 2013, oil and gas corporations acquired rights from the state for drilling operations in Mora County. The “residents feared that extraction activities would degrade the natural environment and their way of life,” according to the Environmental and Earth Law Journal. This led to the passing of the 2013 Mora ordinance, which banned oil and gas production there. It is an example of the deep-rooted symbiotic relationship this local group of people has with nature and what they call “La Querencia de la Tierra” (love for the land). The ordinance stated:
“Rights of La Querencia de la Tierra: The farm-based Indigenous/mestizo (mixed blood) people who created the original Mora County culture considered the Earth to be living and holy; thus, they referred to their homeland as ‘La Querencia de la Tierra,’ Love of the Land. This sacredness connotes an intrinsic right of the land to exist without defilement.”
In addition, the document stated that “Mora County’s ordinance prohibits fracking activities, declares federal or state drilling permits invalid, nullifies corporate violators’ status as legal ‘persons,’ and restricts violators’ access to the courts.”
Among Native American nations, the following have recognized rights of nature: the White Earth Band of Ojibwe, the Ho-Chunk Nation, the Navajo Nation, the Ponca Nation of Oklahoma, the Yurok Tribe (Klamath River), the Nez Perce Tribe (Snake River), and the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin.
This article was produced by Earth | Food | Life, a project of the Independent Media Institute, with research support from Meghan Grady. This piece has been edited and condensed for length. This is Part 2 of a four-part series.
Missed part 1? Read it here.
