On Election Day, voters in Orange County, FL, will vote on a county-wide initiative which would recognize a right to clean water for the residents and rights of Orange County rivers and streams, in the first rights of nature measure in Florida.

Watch the recording of our September webinar on the rights of nature movement in the Philippines. We were joined by National Coordinator Yolanda Esguerra and Attorney Mario Maderazo of the Partnership Mission for People's Initiatives (PMPI).

The rights of the rivers of Bangladesh have been upheld by the country’s Supreme Court.

Live on YouTube now: This month, our Rights of Nature webinar focused on the rights of nature in India, where courts have recognized rights of the Ganges River and other ecosystems. Presenter Shrishtee Bajpai, of the organization Kalpavriksh in Pune, India, discusses recent developments with the rights of nature, including the rights of rivers.

Thomas Linzey, CDER’s senior legal counsel, is hitting the road again (virtually), for CDER’s Fall ’20 College Speaking Tour. Linzey’s presentation, “Who Speaks for the Trees? The Movement for the Rights of Nature” will be delivered to university audiences in both presentations and speeches on virtual platforms, from September 15 - December 15 of this year.

Thomas Linzey, CDER’s senior legal counsel, is hitting the road (virtually) for CDER’s Fall 2020 College Speaking Tour. Linzey will present “Who Speaks for the Trees? The Movement for the Rights of Nature” at college and universities in both presentations and speeches, on virtual platforms, between September 15 - December 15.

After Florida’s governor preempted a pending Orange County charter amendment that would protect two rivers, a local advocacy group sued, testing a growing movement known as Rights of Nature.

A team of independent filmmakers explore global challenges and solutions to gender equality, water safety, and migration. Thomas Linzey, CDER Senior Legal Counsel, is featured in the upcoming episode, “The Right to Safe Water.”

As nature knows no political, social, racial, demographic, or religious boundaries, perhaps it can serve to unite us, rather than divide us—bridging our differences where so few other aspects of our lives can.

In 2008, Ecuador took the extraordinary step of enshrining the legal rights of nature—or Pachamama—in its national constitution. It was the first country to do so. And in so doing, it established the highest legal protections for nature that exist in Western law. As a person privileged to have participated in that process, I continue to marvel that the nation took that step. It’s never easy to go first.

Will the virus known as SARS-Cov-2 be the tipping point for humanity – the point at which we realize that our incessant bulldozing of the natural environment must end because we are destroying ourselves along with it?

The recording of our most recent webinar — Rights of Nature in Australia — is available to watch on YouTube now, featuring Western Australia Member of Parliament Diane Evers, and Michelle Maloney of the Australian Earth Laws Alliance and the Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights.

The mis-named “Clean Waterways Act,” (SB 712) preempts Floridians from protecting their lagoons, streams, rivers, and bays by prohibiting localities from adopting more stringent environmental protections.

The constitutional right of Floridians to set higher standards for their quality of life, their health and safety, and their natural environment, when the state fails to protect them, simply cannot be reconciled with the state’s assertion of power to override those standards.

Orange County, FL: It was business as usual today, with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis elevating the interests of polluters over protections for the people and waterways of his state. Today, DeSantis signed the mis-named “Clean Waterways Act.”

On June 18, CDER and the Florida Rights of Nature Network hosted a one-hour introductory webinar on the Rights of Nature and advancing Rights of Nature laws in the State of Florida.