Friends of the initiative Stories: Earth Advocacy Youth
By: Julia Gilvad Rasmussen and Niccolò Delporto
What are the rights of Nature for EAY?
The rights of Nature were introduced as a legal concept in the 1970s. It is based on legal personhood for “Nature” - ecosystems - and its rights to exist, thrive, and regenerate being codified in law. However, the roots of the rights of Nature are deeper than human law. They are a manifestation of the already existing intrinsic value of the countless beings within the web of life we are all part of, and a way for western law to conceptualise this value.
In EAY, we know that narrative is one of the most crucial building blocks of system change - maybe even the foundation of it. Telling stories about how we envision the future, and acting on those stories, is at the core of our organisation. The rights of Nature are one part of our story, intertwined with the broader legal concept of Earth Jurisprudence. The rights of Nature cannot stand alone, but they are a powerful tool for conveying the message that all life on the planet is connected and intrinsically valuable for its own sake. Nature is not a series of objects there for humans to exploit, but rather a community of subjects, all of which have rights of their own.
More practically, the rights of Nature are a legal tool for protecting ecosystems from collapse. If a living system has the legal right to exist, economic profit from destroying it technically becomes a non-argument when its rights are being violated. The ecosystem is protected without having to be a “national park”, and no link needs to be made between damage to humans and the degradation of ecosystems to build a case (although more often than not, they coincide), so a forest or a lake itself can essentially be represented in court.
The way most human societies treat the web of life implies that we ourselves are not part of it. We “go out in Nature”, use “natural resources”, and speak of other animals as “stock”. In EAY, we believe that actions taken on the basis of this thought pattern are what created the ecological and climate-related crises that the planet is currently facing. Not seeing that life is a series of connections, and distancing ourselves more and more from the rest of the Earth’s web of life, makes us more oblivious to the damage we are causing.
In many local and Indigenous communities around the world, however, they know that all life is interconnected. They have always known. This is why these groups are so essential to have at the table when speaking of the rights of Nature. To many of them, the idea of Nature having rights is so obvious that it should not need to be stated. But in the current societal context, implementing legal rights for Nature is often seen as a new, groundbreaking, or even a stupid idea. This is the dissonance we have created, and this is the gap that we in EAY want to help bridge as part of the rights of Nature movement.
How would the recognition of the rights of Nature safeguard/protect the rights of future generations against adverse effects of climate change?
Human beings are part of Nature, and our lives are deeply intertwined with all other life on Earth. The balance of Earth’s climate is dependent on the balance of ecosystems - a balance that cannot rely on human exploitation of habitats for economic profit. Without functioning life support systems that are able to regenerate themselves, the global climate deteriorates too. We know the extractive mindset to be a destructive and outdated one, upheld by a network of laws based on the false premise of eternal growth. The rights of Nature are an alternative to this.
When we speak about the future generations on Earth, it is necessary to include generations of beings other than humans. We all need to be protected, for our own sake as well as for the sake of the big picture. Safeguarding the rights of living systems to life, regeneration, and thriving, will with good implementation put the integrity and well-being of Earth’s climate ahead of monetary profit, as no ecosystem with a right to life and regeneration will ever benefit from having its soil dug up or removed, all its trees cut down, or its groundwater depleted. The overconsumption that is currently an integral part of human society (particularly in the global North) will not be possible if the law demands that we respect the rights to life and integrity of the ecosystems where we get our so-called “resources”. A society based on the rights of Nature can help secure a climate resilience that will benefit all future generations of Earthlings.
The rights of Nature, of course, suffer from the same flaw as most “new” legal ideas: making them into binding law is hard, and good implementation is even harder. But we owe future generations a try. And progress is already being made in many places around the world, creating an ever-expanding catalogue of knowledge and best practices. One objective for implementation of the rights of Nature can be found in the 7th Generation Principle, which exists in one form or another in many Indigenous communities. The principle states that anything we do today is to be beneficial (or untraceable) seven generations into the future. This principle, in our view, makes up the essence of the rights of future generations.
Part of the efforts for a human community in harmony with the rest of Nature lies in empowering people, especially youth, living in disadvantaged countries and communities most affected by climate breakdown, and giving them the tools to take their agency back. Intragenerational equity needs to be addressed if intergenerational equity is to become a reality, and adaptation is already becoming key to ensuring that life on Earth can continue to exist and thrive. In our endeavours to adapt to a new climate reality, we need to remember to not use the same growth-based tools that got us into this mess in the first place. We need new tools that allow us to create regenerative, resilient societies based on relationships between beings; one such tool is the rights of Nature.
About the authors:
Julia Gilvad Rasmussen recently graduated from the University of Copenhagen with her LLM, currently freelancing and working as Governance & Programme Coordinator of EAY. Julia has been part of the organisation since its inception in 2020 and is passionate about youth participation and strong rights for all Earthlings - human and non-human - in law and policy.
Niccolò Delporto is the Innovation & Partnership Strategist of EAY. He is an LL.M. candidate in Law & Sustainable Development currently in Erasmus at Wageningen University & Research. He recently concluded an internship at the Adaptation Division of the UNFCCC Secretariat. After studying for a semester in Finnish Lapland, he became passionate about the Rights of Nature and decided to dedicate his academic experience to understanding the legal and social interaction between humans and nature in the current anthropocentric system.
DISCLAIMER
The views expressed in this article are that of our partners and does not reflect the position of the WYCJ on the subject matter.
