Rights of Nature: European Citizens' Initiative calls for fundamental rights for ecosystems

Would the heated planet be more healthy if nature had a say? If seas, mountains and rivers, plants, animals, even microorganisms were no longer viewed as just useful resources, but as cohabitants with legal personality status: Would people then protect them more respectfully and consistently?

Such ideas may seem esoteric to many citizens. But renowned legal experts around the world are dealing with this. Now the movement for “Rights of Nature” is also gaining political support in Europe.

From mid-October, a growing network of local grassroots initiatives wants to launch a citizens' initiative for such individual rights. In the future, the EU should evaluate ecosystems as “living units with intrinsic value and fundamental rights” and grant them “the right to existence, the right to regenerate their biocapacities and life cycles and the right to restoration.” Because otters and white willows cannot express their needs themselves, “citizens and communities” should be empowered to “act as managers and representatives of ecosystems.” In other words: people should, for example, take into account the needs and interests of living beings when planning construction, and if necessary also in court.

58 rivers come to Berlin

If the advocates succeed in gathering a million votes within a year, the EU Commission must address their concerns and justify a rejection.

In order to prepare this signature campaign, the new suffragettes of ecological emancipation are meeting in Berlin this weekend. The host of the “Confluence” is the Spree, as one of the organizers, the environmental researcher and urban planner Léon Gross from the eco-design project “Symbiotic Lab” puts it. 58 rivers and lakes from 18 countries, including 16 European ones, followed their instructions. Not bad support, but does the equality project have a chance of being realized? What motivates his supporters? Who are they?

Ecocentric understanding of law

Imke Horstmannshoff deals with such questions. She is currently writing her doctoral thesis in Environmental Humanities in London on initiatives for the rights of nature that have emerged on the banks of European rivers. During her research, she encountered a colorful, dynamic mix of science and activism from Sweden to Italy, France to Poland. Lawyers, philosophers, environmental experts, local politicians and indigenous communities no longer viewed rivers as arteries and backdrops, but as “intrinsically valuable,” says Horstmannshoff. For this they fought with enlightenment, tribunals and festivals.

Other countries have demonstrated that the hoped-for shift from an “anthropocentric,” i.e. human-centered, understanding of law to an “ecocentric” understanding of law is not a utopia. Ecuador enshrined the rights of nature in its constitution in 2008, and Bolivia followed suit by law. In Bangladesh and Colombia, the highest courts strengthened such rights, and New Zealand declared Whanganui a legal entity in 2017.