The Rights of Nature: Indigenous Philosophies Reframing Law | InterContinental Cry via Truthout

Cofan Indigenous leader Emergildo Criollo looks over an oil contaminated river near his home in northern Ecuador. (Photo: Caroline Bennett / Rainforest Action Network (flickr))

Indigenous battles to defend nature have taken to the streets, leading to powerful mobilizations like the gathering at Standing Rock. They have also taken to the courts, through the development of innovative legal ways of protecting nature. In Ecuador, Bolivia and New Zealand, indigenous activism has helped spur the creation of a novel legal phenomenon -- the idea that nature itself can have rights.

The 2008 constitution of Ecuador was the first national constitution to establish rights of nature. In this legal paradigm shift, nature changed from being held as property to a rights-bearing entity.

Rights are typically given to actors who can claim them -- humans -- but they have expanded especially in recent years to non-human entities such as corporations, animals and the natural environment.

The notion that nature has rights is a huge conceptual advance in protecting the Earth. Prior to this framework, an environmental lawsuit could only be filed if a personal human injury was proven in connection to the environment. This can be quite difficult. Under Ecuadorian law, people can now sue on the ecosystem's behalf, without it being connected to a direct human injury.

The Kichwa notion of "Sumak Kawsay" or "buen vivir" in Spanish translates roughly to good living in English. It expresses the idea of harmonious, balanced living among people and nature. The idea centers on living "well" rather than "better" and thus rejects the capitalist logic of increasing accumulation and material improvement. In that sense, this model provides an alternative to the model of development, by instead prioritizing living sustainably with Pachamama, the Andean goddess of mother earth. Nature is conceived as part of the social fabric of life, rather than a resource to be exploited or as a tool of production…

more: The Rights of Nature: Indigenous Philosophies Reframing Law

by Kiana Herold
January 6, 2017