The Rights of Nature
The “rights of nature” is the recognition and protection of legal rights of nature, including rights of ecosystems and species. Rights of nature laws, policies, and court decisions recognize nature as a living entity with legal rights. Further, they institute mechanisms for people and governments to implement, enforce, and defend these rights on behalf of, and in the name of, nature. The founders of the Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights (CDER) have worked on the first rights of nature laws in the world, including in the United States and with Ecuador’s Constitution, and continue to advance the rights of nature around the globe.
Legal Rights
The rights of nature – which have been secured through laws, policies, and court rulings – include rights to exist, flourish, regenerate, evolve, and be restored. Rights specific to the needs of a particular part of nature have also been recognized, including the right of wild rice to freshwater habitat and the right of rivers to flow.
Rights of Nature Enacted by Communities, Countries, and Tribal & First Nations
Rights of nature laws were first adopted by local communities in the U.S.
The first rights of nature law – drafted by CDER’s Thomas Linzey – was established in 2006. The law was enacted in Tamaqua Borough, Pennsylvania, a community facing the dumping of toxic waste that would impact the health of humans and nature. More than three dozen U.S. communities have now enacted rights of nature laws.
The first country to secure the rights of nature was Ecuador, which in 2008 enshrined the rights of nature — Pacha Mama — in its national constitution. CDER’s Thomas Linzey and Mari Margil consulted with Ecuador’s Constituent Assembly on the rights of nature constitutional provisions.
Local laws have now been established in the U.S., Canada, and Brazil. National laws are in place in Ecuador, Bolivia, Panama, Spain, and Uganda. In addition, courts in Colombia, India, Peru, and Bangladesh have recognized legal rights of rivers and other ecosystems. Learn more with our Rights of Nature Law Library and Rights of Nature Timeline.
Tribal and First Nations have also protected the rights of nature. This includes the Rappahannock Tribe in Virginia, the Menominee Tribe of Wisconsin, the White Earth Band of Ojibwe, and the Innu Council of Ekuanitshit in Quebec, which have recognized rights of species and ecosystems.
Owners of land have also established legal rights of nature through land easements. This includes land protected in Pennsylvania and Hawaii. Explore more with our Land That Owns Itself Program.
Moving to a Rights-Based Framework
to Protect Nature
The growing movement to protect the rights of nature comes as we face overlapping environmental crises, including accelerating species extinction and climate change.
As these crises build, there has been a growing recognition that existing environmental laws are inadequate to protect nature, and that environmental laws legalize much of the harm that is causing these crises.
Today’s environmental laws authorize human use of the environment, treating nature as property or an item of commerce.
Environmental laws permit certain uses of nature, including: the use and contamination of millions of gallons of fresh water at every fracking well, the use of mountain ecosystems by permitting the blowing up of mountaintops to mine coal, and the use of the atmosphere by authorizing the burning of fossil fuels which increases carbon dioxide levels. The consequences of treating nature in this way – as existing to serve human beings – is unsustainable and destroying the natural world upon which we depend.
The recognition of legal rights of nature represents a fundamental shift in humankind’s relationship with nature, from how we govern ourselves toward nature, to how nature itself is treated under the law.
In practice, this includes ensuring that human activity does not interfere with the ability of the natural world to be healthy, robust, and resilient.
For instance, in Ecuador, enforcement of the constitutional rights of nature has included the Constitutional Court’s overturning of mining permits in fragile ecosystems and within the habitat of at-risk species.
CDER works in Ecuador, the U.S., Ireland, the United Kingdom, the Philippines, Australia, Nepal, and elsewhere, with Tribal Nations, local communities, and at national levels, to advance the legal rights of nature. Further, with partners in Australia, we’ve worked on extending rights of nature protections off-earth, releasing a Declaration of the Rights of the Moon.
We partner with and assist NGOs, community groups, and governments seeking to advance legal rights of nature, through education and training, drafting of legislative and constitutional frameworks, as well as through the enactment and enforcement of these frameworks.
Explore our many resources, webinars, trainings, CLE classes and legal trainings, and other materials.
Our Projects in Protecting
and Legalizing the Rights of Nature
-
Rights of Pollinators
Manitou Pollinators, a group based out of Manitou Springs in Colorado, recognized the significance of pollinators and now works to enhance the natural environment to restore and aid their populations. The Manitou Pollinators is working with the Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights (CDER) to establish the first Rights of Pollinators Ordinance and are improving pollinator protection through other local projects in their community.
-
Rights of Tar Creek in Miami, Oklahoma
Once a place for the community to gather and for children to play, Tar Creek is now unsafe for the people of Miami, Oklahoma, due to water pollution from lead and zinc mining in the region.
The Local Environmental Action Demanded (LEAD) Agency advocates for the natural environment in response to this contamination. In our interview, Rebecca Jim, the Executive Director of the LEAD Agency, shares how the organization aims to restore Tar Creek to its former glory.
-
Rights of Soil
Healthy soils are a core component of healthy ecosystems. Healthy soils are essential for water filtration, drought resilience, reduction of runoff and erosion, and the mitigation of climate change by the maintenance and increase of soil carbon, keeping carbon in the ground. Functioning and healthy soils are also necessary for productive agriculture, crop yields, and nutrient density in food.
-
Right to a Healthy Climate
Human-induced climate change is touching every aspect of our world, altering the Earth’s chemical and physical cycles. Rising global temperatures are causing extreme weather, threats to human health, economic disruption, ocean acidification, drought, social instability, species extinction, ecosystem harm, and a wide range of other impacts.
Climate change threatens the very survival of the human species on this planet, as well as the survival of other species and ecosystems.
-
Faith Communities and the Rights of Nature
In recent years, faith leaders have taken notable steps toward the recognition of legal rights of nature. Pope Francis declared that the environment has "rights." The Church of Sweden has included the rights of nature within its educational program. The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines has called for the recognition of the rights of nature, and the United Church of Christ in the U.S. has adopted a rights of nature policy.
Learn more about the growing and important role that faith communities have in the global Rights of Nature movement.
-
Rights of Nature Land Trust
The Rights of Nature Land Trust was established to assist landowners to protect their land through Rights of Nature Easements.
Landowners have typically used “conservation easements” to permanently protect their land from certain kinds of development.
Rights of Nature Easements build on the ability of conservation easements to protect land from development, while adding a recognition that ecosystems on the land have certain rights that must be protected. Those rights may include the rights to exist, flourish, regenerate, and be restored. The landowner can enforce the legal rights recognized by the easement against anyone interfering with those rights.