Brief History of Rights of Nature Movement

In 1972, Christopher Stone, Professor at the University of Southern California offered a truly original contribution to the environmental movement, taking up the theme of property rights and nature. In “Should Trees Have Standing?” (link to WILPF handout), he set forth the legal framework for the rights of nature, arguing that since trees and birds cannot exercise those rights themselves, individuals and groups should be able to apply to the court for legal guardianship, and for the right to litigate on behalf of the natural object.

More than 30 years later, environmental lawyers Cormac Cullinan, from South Africa, and Tom Linzey, working in Pennsylvania, came to the same frustrating conclusion: environmental regulations were inadequate and permitted harm to human health and the environment.

In 2003, Cullinan, deep affected by the writings of eco-theologian Thomas Berry and indigenous people’s understanding of the interconnectedness of all life, wrote Wild Law: A Manifesto for Earth Justice stating: “We need a new body of law whose first priority is to protect the ecological community in which we live.”

In 2006, Tom Linzey and the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, pioneers in rights-based organizing, assisted the small Pennsylvania town of Tamaqua (link to press release) in passing an ordinance to deny the corporate right to spread harmful sewage sludge as fertilizer on farmland and to recognize natural communities and ecosystems as legal persons with legal rights. This was the first “wild law” to be passed anywhere in the world, now followed by communities in PA, NH, and ME that have passed “Rights of Nature” ordinances (link article).

On September 28, 2008, when their new Constitution was passed by national referendum, the nation of Ecuador became the first to codify the traditional wisdom of indigenous people who “recognize Mother Earth as a living being with which they have an indivisible, inter-dependent, complementary and spiritual relationship into a ‘new system’ of environmental protection” based on the rights of nature. The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund advised the Ecuador Constitutional Assembly

In April 2009, the United Nations General Assembly declared April 22 “International Mother Earth Day,” following the Bolivia-led Initiative (find link)

April 22, 2010 at the World People’s Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth the Universal Declaration of the Rights of Mother Earth (http://motherearthrights.org/universal-declaration/ ) is approved.

In September 2010, at the International Gathering for the Rights of Nature, “The Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature” was founded

On March 31, 2011, The Panchamama Alliance reported (make link) that the Provincial Court in Loja, Ecuador ruled in favor of Nature, specifically the Vilcabamba River marking the first successful case enforcing the Rights of Nature clause in the 2008 Constitution and establishing a legal precedent for future enforcement (need to have a symbol to indicate an important update to postings).

In April 2011, the UN General Assembly sponsored a panel discussion on “Harmony with Nature” (make link) to discuss the creation of a UN Treaty that would grant the same rights found in the Universal Declaration of Rights of Mother Earth” approved at the World People’s Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth, April 22, 2010.

For more read “Earth Democracy and the Rights of Mother Earth”