By Maude Barlow

People who grow or support organic food care about soil conservation, biodiversity, ecological balance and environmental sustainability – in other words – nature. So it is not surprising that many support the rights of nature, a dramatic global development that UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres calls the fastest growing legal movement of the twenty-first century.

The rights of nature is of course, not new. It is part of Indigenous and traditional culture and knowledge around the world. But a modern iteration was created in 2010 with the Universal Declaration on the Rights of Mother Earth, recognizing that Earth is an indivisible living community of interrelated and interdependent beings with inherent rights and calling for laws that regulate humans in a manner that allows other species to fulfill their evolutionary role on the planet.

Most current legal systems view nature as property and most laws to protect the environment merely regulate the amount of damage that can be inflicted by human activity. Rights of nature promotes a legal and governance system that contributes not only to humans but to the wider ecological community. Ecosystems, wildlife and the Earth itself are considered living beings with inherent rights deserving of legal protection. Rights of nature are granted through “legal personhood” – with human guardians representing nature in court and in the creation of laws.

The Magpie River

The Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature brings environmental, Indigenous, human rights and conservation organizations together with scientists, economists, writers and spiritual leaders looking to transform our human relationship with our planet. Its members believe that nature in all its life forms has the right to exist, persist, maintain and regenerate. The network collects and reports on the hundreds of examples around the world where the rights of nature are being recognized. Some, such as Bolivia and Ecuador, have brought rights of nature into their constitution. Many others are legal findings of local or national courts. Others are community-based, initiated by local groups – often Indigenous – and adopted by local governments.

There are now close to 500 rights of nature projects in 44 countries with many new initiatives on the way. One of the largest projects is the rights of rivers. Rivers now protected include the Whanganui in New Zealand, the Maranon in Peru, the Biobio in Chile, the Ouse in England, the Clyde in Scotland, and the Mar Menor in Spain.

The Magpie River in Northern Quebec is the first river in Canada to be granted legal rights. Local Innu people formed an alliance with municipal councillors and environmental groups to protect the river from hydro development and in February, 2021, granted the river nine rights, including the right to flow, the right to maintain its natural biodiversity and the right to be free from pollution. It even has the right to sue! Whether this declaration could stand up in a court of law is, of course, unknown. But given that most of these projects world-wide are led by Indigenous communities, their growing rights as laid out in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples with its promise of “free, prior and informed consent,” stand to be tested.

Other Canadian rights of nature initiatives underway include Lake Winnipeg, the Gatineau, Athabasca and Yukon Rivers, and the mighty St Lawrence. In October 2024, the British Columbia Assembly of First Nations adopted a resolution calling on the province and others to work with First Nations to advance the legal personhood of nature. Others around the world are moving to protect oceans and even Antarctica!

The rights of nature is an ancient idea whose time has surely come again.

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