What if San Antonio had a bill of rights? What might it look like? Could it have rights of nature in it, that ecosystems within the city of San Antonio have certain rights? Absolutely. Are you gonna run up against a system of law that says you can’t do it? Yes, you are. It’s a fact.

The right to vote is at the core of any healthy, functioning democracy. Yet, our democratic rights do not begin and end on Election Day. In the United States, as in a number of other countries, “direct democracy” is increasingly recognized as an important way to make change.

The Environment and Climate Crisis Council of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) has recommended including the Rights of Nature in the 2020 Democratic Party Platform.

This month, the Council forwarded recommendations for policies to be included in the platform. The new platform will be adopted at the Democratic National Convention this summer.

Our June 2020 webinar focused on Ecuador, with an excellent presentation by Attorney Hugo Echeverria, who is based in Quito and who works with CDER. He spoke about the Rights of Nature constitutional provisions in Ecuador, recent court cases on Rights of Nature, and future steps for implementation.

As Seminole County Commissioner Bob Dallari canoed on the Wekiva River recently, he noticed a growing amount of algae – more than in previous years – on the water’s surface and along the shorelines….

Dallari said his outing on the river led to a question more and more local governments are beginning to ask: Should rivers, lakes, forests and other natural areas have certain legal rights just like people do?

We are pleased to announce upcoming dates and speakers for our Rights of Nature Update webinars. Our June webinar will focus on Ecuador, and our July webinar will focus on developments in Australia.

On May 7, we held our first monthly webinar on the Rights of Nature. Presenters Mari Margil and Thomas Linzey discussed the origins of Rights of Nature laws and how the movement to recognize rights of the natural world is building through lawmaking and court decisions in countries across the globe.

On the fiftieth anniversary of Earth Day, is it time to consider rights for nature?

We are hosting free monthly webinars on the most recent developments in the Rights of Nature field, which will provide an opportunity to delve deeper into the concept. Join us to hear from activists who are advancing Rights of Nature law and policy, discuss key concepts, and more.

The first rights of nature initiative in Massachusetts has qualified for a town-wide vote in Sheffield, in western Massachusetts.The initiative would recognize the rights of the Housatonic River to “exist, flourish, regenerate, evolve, and be restored.”

“Tune in” online and listen live! Thomas Linzey, CDER senior legal counsel, will be doing a live radio interview tomorrow (Tuesday, April 7) on the Thom Hartmann program.

I first traveled to Nepal in 2012 to meet with members of the Constituent Assembly drafting the country’s new constitution. The central question we discussed was how to tackle global warming from a Rights of Nature perspective.

On March 18, 2020, we were able to participate in a full day of discussion and learnings about the Rights of Nature and what it might mean to advance this in the province. This was all done through video conferencing as we were not able to travel to Vancouver for the events.

Today, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is expected to follow Mississippi’s lead by signing the state legislature’s ill-named “Clean Waterways Act” into law. Supported by Republicans and Democrats alike, the Act fails to address the primary cause of the state’s water quality problems – pollution from large agricultural operations.

In the face of growing environmental crisis around the world, PMPI is demonstrating the importance of advancing the Rights of Nature to make the significant changes that are needed in how humankind governs itself toward the natural world.

March 4, 2020 – Today, the fifteen member Orange County, Florida Charter Review Commission (CRC) voted to place a “rights of nature” initiative onto the November, 2020 ballot. The initiative, the first of its kind to be placed on a county ballot for a public vote, would recognize legal rights for the rivers and waters of Orange County, while also recognizing the rights of Orange County residents to a safe and healthy environment.

The Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights (CDER) congratulates our partners Speak Up Wekiva in Orange County, Florida, for successfully advancing a proposed rights of nature measure to a vote in November 2020. We have worked with them over the past year on a measure to protect the rights of the Wekiva and other waterways in the county.

The Wekiva River flows 16 miles through central Florida, a kayaking and canoeing haven that’s part of several protected conservation areas. But fertilizer runoff from yards and farming operations have dumped more than four times the amount of nitrates in the river than it should have, according to state environmental regulators. To protect the river — and the communities and ecosystems around it — from further harm, a group of Floridians want to give it legal rights.

In January 2020, the legislature of the Menominee Tribe of Wisconsin adopted Resolution 19-52, Recognition of the Rights of the Menominee River. We are proud to have worked with the Menominee tribal non-profit organization, Menikanaehkem, to draft the resolution, and we continue to work together to protect ecosystems and species within the Tribe’s historic lands.

Across the state, Florida waterways are under siege. …In response to those threats, however, people in nine Florida counties, including Alachua, have begun to demand stronger water protections.