Naturen er blevet tildelt rettigheder andre steder i verden.
Eksempelvis har Bolivia indført en Moder Jord Lov. I sidste uge fastslog en indisk højesteret, at floderne ganges og Jamuna har rettigheder.
Europa sakker imidlertid agterud i den udvikling, mener NGO, som vil gøre en indsats for at få denne udvikling til EU.
Her deres pressemeddelelse onsdag.
Brussels, 29th March 2017: International experts, MEPs, NGOs and representatives from key environmental EU institutions meet at the European Parliament today to discuss how to adopt rights of nature – legal rights for ecosystems and species – in European law and policy.
Rights of nature entail granting legal personality rights to ecosystems and species, similar to legal personality and enforceable rights for people, organisations and corporations.
As ancient as they are new, rights of nature and its underlying philosophy of Earth Jurisprudence are becoming a fact as more and more countries adopt these rights at national and local levels as well as in court decisions.
In the past few weeks alone, the Rivers Whanganui, Ganges and Yamuna made headlines as the first rivers in the world to be granted legal personality and rights.
Yet to come
In Europe, however, the rights of nature are yet to come.
”In our current law, ecosystems and living species are treated as objects, property and resources – whilst corporations are made subjects of the law with rights similar to human beings. This enables an economic system based on unlimited growth that is coupled with the destruction of nature,” explains Mumta Ito, lawyer and Founder of the non-profit organisation Nature’s Rights, co-organiser of today's conference.
“Our current system of environmental law simply manages the externalities of business as usual without addressing root causes. It can only slow the rate of degradation – it cannot stop or reverse it.”
Unprecedented environmental problems
As humanity is facing unprecedented global environmental problems, experts, NGOs and environmental institutions have been working for years to develop ways to protect ecosystems against the harms of economic development.
“Current indicators, focused on economic growth, don’t reveal how sustainable our development really is”, says Luc Bas, European Regional Director from IUCN.
“Incorporating the value of natural capital in economic decision-making is one way to improve this. However, to prevent a commodification of nature, approaches such as the rights of nature need to be part of the debate.”
This is why IUCN, the leading global authority on nature conservation, adopted rights of nature in their resolutions and 2017-2020 work program.
Additionally, in 2009 the UN started a Harmony with Nature Initiative with a network of experts devoted to promoting nature’s rights as a systemic solution to support the sustainability transition.
European Citizens Initiative
Adopting rights of nature in EU law and policy would not only help to deal with current environmental issues but also induce a profound change in the way that nature is perceived and protected in Europe in the future.
One way to bring rights of nature on the European legislative agenda is to initiate the European Citizens’ Initiative, a democratic mechanism open to citizens of the EU.
This is why Nature´s Rights is proposing a European Citizens’ Initiative to include the rights of nature in EU law and policy. A development long overdue, as conference co-host, MEP and Vice Chair of the Environment Committee Pavel Poc (S&D) explains:
"Decades of insane growth worship brought us to the edge of the cliff. Now it is time to look underfoot and stop, otherwise nothing follows but a deep deep drop. The rights of nature concept might be the safety rope before it is too late."
