The April 8th Rights of nature webinar focuses on the first Rights of nature law passed in Canada, to protect the MagPie/Meteshekau Shipu River. We have two special guest speakers for this event: Pier-Olivier Boudrealt and Yenny Vega Cardenas.

Thomas Linzey, our Senior Legal Counsel, focuses on the concept of legally enforceable Rights of Nature and traces the development of Rights of Nature laws and court decisions around the world. This webinar is for groups in the U.S. interested in learning about the Rights of Nature movement, and how to implement it in their own town or city.

Thomas Linzey is the Senior Legal Counsel at the Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights (CDER). The event was part of CDER’s 2020 College Tour, titled “Who Speaks for the Trees: The Movement for the Rights of Nature”. This was hosted in partnership with the University of Toledo Legal Institute of the Great Lakes and the Environmental Law Department.

Bioneers Keynote - Now available! Watch CDER's Mari Margil and Thomas Linzey – Changing Everything: The Global Movement for the Rights of Nature - at the 2020 Bioneers Conference. With Kenny Ausubel providing introductions, Mari Margil and Thomas Linzey highlighted breakthrough milestones in legal natural rights protections in tribal nations, communities, and countries around the world. As stated in a press release, they “explain how advancing the rights of nature in legal codes and constitutions can lead to a radical transformation in humankind’s relationship with the natural world”.

The first rights of nature law in Florida was overwhelmingly approved by voters on Election Day! Hear from the leaders of the campaign and the growing movement in Florida on our monthly webinar series, Global Developments in the Rights of Nature. In November 2020, CDER focused on the State of Florida, in the United States, with presenters Chuck O'Neal and Joe Bonasia of the Florida Rights of Nature Network, a key partner organization of CDER.

A big election night win in Orange County Florida, with nearly 90% of voters voting "yes" to recognize the rights of rivers and waterways. Water is everything in Florida and industrialization is harming water ecosystems across the state. Now, however, rivers in Orange County have the right to exist and the right to flow. Mari Margil joined Thom to explain what it means to Florida, and how nature can have rights.

In September 2020, CDER's Thomas Linzey, Esq., gave a keynote presentation titled "Advancing Rights-Based Protections for Nature: Proposing, Drafting, and Adopting Rights of Nature Laws". Geneva E.B. Thompson, Associate General Counsel for the Yurok Tribe also presents on the journey of the Rights of the Klamath River. This includes the history of the Yurok worldviews, as well as the rights of the Klamath River Resolution and the importance of this body to local species.

This panel, moderated by Thomas Linzey, features Guy Reiter, Executive Director of Menikanaehk EM, Inc., Menominee Indian Organizer. Guy presents on how nature is intrinsically connected to tribal identity, and how to protect nature is to protect their sovereign right to exist and be seen. His work with the Menominee tribe, Menominee River, and community is a true success story.

On September 21, 2020, Pachamama Alliance Co-founders Bill and Lynne Twist were joined by international Rights of Nature experts and advocates Natalia Green, Co-founder of Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature, and Thomas Linzey, Senior Legal Counsel for the Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights, for a conversation as part of Resilience and Possibility in These Times.

The search for safe drinking water has become a trending topic in the debate on climate change. Resources are growing scarcer, but communities are rising to the occasion to develop means of protection. In Mumbai, India, a right-to-water campaign is having success in getting thousands of tap water connections into informal dwellings. In West Virginia, the coal and fracking industries’ political stranglehold has mobilized neighborhood groups to fight back, protecting their streams and groundwater from toxic waste. Our own Thomas Linzey provides his expertise in the importance of their validation within justice systems.

Thomas Linzey is the Senior Legal Counsel at the Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights (CDER). The event was part of CDER's 2020 College Tour, titled "Who Speaks for the Trees: The Movement for the Rights of Nature." Direct link found here.