program

The program is designed in 3 chapters to introduce participants to concepts including Earth Centred Law, Rights of Nature and Earth Jurisprudence. It also offers learning activities, thought provocations and nourishing ponderings.

Much of this material is in podcast and video format, while the
readings themselves are deliberately short and accessible.
We will provide a template with prompts and questions
to support you in hosting group discussions.

At present,
Rights of Nature Laws
are following two identifiable approaches.

The first recognises in law that ALL of nature has the right to exist,
thrive and persist within a particular jurisdiction (eg a nation, a region, a local area). The second approach uses the existing legal concept called 'legal personhood'
to assert that a particular ecosystem (for example a river) has 'legal personhood', just like a human person does. In different parts of the world, there are variations of how these two approaches are applied. The effectiveness of each approach is currently being explored and tested.

By working through this process of rethinking language, legal parameters and power relations - we can start to move closer to unpacking 'cultural' barriers to protecting nature. By formally acknowledging the legal rights of the environment to exist, these laws can reposition nature as much more than a just a resource for human exploitation.

This debate around the Rights of Nature movement helps us to think
more critically about the legal system itself, who made it and why
it was made.

Who does it serve? And who is left out?

'For too long has the human mind been limited by thinking like a machine. Mechanistic thought has allowed humans to unleash violence on other species, both plants and animals. Eco-centric thinking, thinking with plants and other species will help humans by understanding the sanctity and continuity of life and our place in the Earth family’.

Vandana Shiva