Volunteers power Earth Law

Figure 1 Photo by rawpixel on Unsplash

By Mallika Desai

 “If our hopes of building a better and safer world are to become more than wishful thinking, we will need the engagement of volunteers more than ever.” – Kofi Anan

The virtue of volunteering

In today’s world where bad news about the environment, political and climate refugees and hate politics abound, volunteering means more than ever. Benefiting not just the doer, volunteering benefits cascade to individual recipients and communities as well.

Global estimates place the number of volunteers worldwide at 970 million. Factoring in the hours, that equals over 125 million full-time workers – according to a study published by John Hopkins University. Approximately one in four volunteers contribute their time and skills through organizations and the rest do so directly, helping their neighbors and communities. In terms of economic impact, estimates place the value of volunteer work at US$ 1.348 trillion or 2.4 per cent of the entire global economy.

The time and expertise volunteers provide make an immense difference. The truth of the matter is, the non-profit world depends on volunteers to fulfill its mission. 

According to the Corporation for National Community Service, 62.6 million Americans volunteered 7.8 billion hours of their time in 2017, creating an estimated value of $184 billion. If this is the impact that can be generated by 25.3% of the American population, imagine the difference more of us could make.

Volunteering benefits the volunteer too with a range of mental and physical health boosts. 60% of hiring managers see the act of volunteering as a valuable asset when making recruitment decisions, according to a study performed by Career Builder.

Volunteer-based organizations like Earth Law Center 

Here, Earth Law Center (ELC) has transformed to become a volunteer-based organization. In 2018, over 200 of us volunteered with about 100 very actively. Many of our volunteers have gone on to a successful career change or entry into law school after their time at ELC.

We come from various walks of life. Some of us volunteer full-time and others part-time. We all bring different skills and expertise to make a unique contribution. What we share is a passion for doing something to address the environmental crisis of our day.

Over three dozen undergraduate and law school interns joined us over the summer as well as talented graduate students like Melannie Levine who spent her externship with ELC.

Let me introduce you to a few of ELC’s dedicated volunteers.

Meet Constanza Prieto

Constanza, a lawyer from Chile, has volunteered with ELC for over a year as the Ocean Rights Lead. As team lead for the Whales and Dolphins Sanctuary Uruguay initiative, she supervises four interns and volunteers and collaborates with the River Rights team when needed. Constanza brings with her incredible experience in human rights, economic, social and cultural rights and indigenous peoples rights. With a keen interest in environmental law, she chose to volunteer with the ELC to build on her experience and capabilities in the field.

When asked about volunteering, Constanza shared: “I think everyone has different motivations to volunteer and every single one is valid. For example, to acquire relevant experience in the field, because you are retired and you want to share your knowledge and experience, because you are looking to contribute towards a solution to the environmental issues, because the environment is your passion or because you want to do something meaningful in your life. You just need a little time in your calendar, some motivation and engagement, and a desire to learn. You will be surprised by the impact of your work and how this volunteering experience can change your professional perspective and the way you see the world.”

“The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.” – Mahatma Gandhi

Meet Ben Allen

Ben has managed social media for ELC since December 2017 while he worked full time at an environmental education non-profit called Population Education. Ben chose to volunteer with ELC because of the organization’s philosophy that calls for inherent rights for nature. Since then he’s enrolled to earn his JD in environmental law at Vermont Law School and still finds time to manage ELC’s web page (thank you, Ben!). 

Ben raved about his time with ELC: “I remember always being perplexed by people who were okay with animal testing, or fine with unfettered development and the extraction of natural resources in the name of human progress. Working for ELC allows me to promote the rights of nature and protect the Earth with an eco-centric approach that values all life and ecosystems. My experience has been incredible. I've learned so much about the inherent rights of nature, Earth Law approaches, and the nuanced conservation challenges we face today. I’ve also gained practical skills and have done work that is fulfilling and meaningfully contributes to ELC's mission. I also must say that Darlene, the ELC staff, and my fellow volunteers have been fabulous to work with: sharp, passionate, and quick to help or support you.” 

“Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on Earth.” – Muhammad Ali 

Meet Helen George

I began volunteering after completing a certificate in copyediting at UC San Diego Extension. In editing circles new editors are often advised to gain experience by volunteering for charities.

Finding a charity that recognizes the need for an editor is easier said than done. Fortunately for me, Earth Law Center is very active in communicating its mission to the public. There has been lots of editing for me to do. Over the past year I’ve worked on everything from blog posts to long reports.

Volunteering for Earth Law Center has also given me to the opportunity to try structural editing, sensitivity editing and line editing. Earlier this year I used my experience with Earth Law Center to support my successful application for intermediate level membership of the Society for Editors and Proofreaders. 

I’ve volunteered in many places and in many ways over the years. I’m really impressed with how Earth Law Center makes active use of volunteers and provides them with the chance to grow professionally.

Editing Earth Law material is interesting. I strongly recommend volunteering with ELC to anyone seeking experience in editing or in copywriting.

Meet Caroline Abid 

Caroline has led the Coastal Communities initiative at ELC since the beginning of 2018 as Environmental Policy Lead. With a background in environmental consulting, she wanted to put her skills and time in service of a broad environmental cause and found ELC. Caroline led a variety of different ocean rights initiatives for ELC. Now Project Officer for the Sustainable Wildlife Management Programme – Africa, Caroline travels to places like Madagascar and builds on the experience of her time at ELC.

Caroline shared: “Rights of nature is an innovative way to include the protection of our environment in a legal framework. I am convinced that environmental issues are one of the most important and challenging issues that we are currently facing, so the more people can put their skills at the service of this cause, the more chance of success we have. Volunteering with ELC has been a very positive experience for me, particularly to learn more about environmental initiatives worldwide. The management team is very collaborative, helpful and open to any suggestions which makes it all the more fulfilling.” 

Meet Mallika Desai

I myself have been volunteering with ELC as the Newsletter Lead for nearly a year now. Like my fellow volunteers, I have found the experience to be incredibly educational and meaningful.

Developing content for the newsletter based on the various initiatives and projects that are being worked by ELC has opened up a world of insight for me into how we can in fact legally fight for the Rights of Nature. My contribution to ELC to help raise awareness for the cause gives me a sense of purpose. 

It’s so easy to get caught up in the daily details and a busy life with hardly a free moment to spare. Yet true contentment comes from the recognition of our connections, and honoring that with the choices we make in our lives. For me, this means finding important causes to support. You may have found other ways to give back.

I am grateful to be a part of the ELC community and hope to continue finding different ways to help the team with their mission. Consider volunteering or donating to protect the environment today! 

“We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.” — Winston Churchill

Rights for Doljanka River in the Blue Heart of Europe

Figure 1 Source: Doljanka River by Omer Zebić

by Anes Podic

The Bosnia River Action Network Advocacy (BRANA) in Bosnia and Herzegovina, seeks recognition of rights for the beautiful Doljanka River, one of the few wild rivers left in Europe which is now being threatened by a hydropower plant. Members include Earth Law Center, Eko akcija (“eco action”) and Gotusa.

Primer on the Balkans

The Balkan Peninsula, or Balkans, is the historic and geographic name of southeastern Europe. The Balkans lay south of the rivers Save, Drava, and Danube and is surrounded by the Adriatic and Ionian Seas in the west, the Mediterranean Sea in the south and the Aegean, Marmara, and Black Seas in the east.

The countries that make up the Balkans today include Greece, Albania, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Romania, rump Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro), and Bosnia Herzegovina (referred to as Bosnia throughout this text). 

Figure 2 By NordNordWest [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

The Blue Heart of Europe

The blue heart of Europe refers to the wild rivers that still exist, primarily in the Balkans. Over 80 percent of these vital lifelines have good or even very good ecological status.  By comparison, only 10 percent of Germany's rivers are still classified as near-natural, whereas 60 percent are heavily regulated.

Forty percent of Europe's endangered species of freshwater molluscs (bivalves and snails) live in the rivers and lakes of the Balkan peninsula. In addition to this, the region has the distinction of having a high density of endemic fish species; there are 69 fish species that occur only in the Balkan rivers and nowhere else in the world.

Produced by the firm Patagonia, a new documentary Blue Heart highlights how 3,000 hydropower plants planned across the Balkans will destroy the last wild rivers in Europe. Dams destroy the natural ecosystems of a river. The Save the Blue Heart of Europe campaign is getting a lot of traction worldwide and building momentum to save the wild rivers of the Balkans.  EcoAlbania won its first court battle against one of the largest approved dam projects along the Vjosa near the town of Poçem. Local residents are fighting back in other parts of the Balkans too.

Three quarters of the rivers in the Balkans are so ecologically valuable that they should be completely off limits for hydropower development, according to a recent assessment published by Riverwatch and Euro Natur.

Destruction of the Doljanka River

The power station scheduled for Doljanka is one of around 250 hydroelectric projects that have been approved or are under construction across Bosnia.

Financed by the former NBA Player Mirza Teletović, construction and development teams started destroying the river banks in order to lay 2 meter diameter pipes at a pace of 20-30 meters a day, according to Anes Podic, of Eko Akcija (Eco Action) in Bosnia. They have obtained an environmental permit based on flawed impact studies.

''This is just the latest example - we now see and hear almost weekly of the Balkans wild rivers being destroyed by rampant private businesses, both local and EU-based, with the help of local political elite, financed by Austrian, German and Russian banks. In this light, it may be disconcerting to some but is in fact very indicative that neither the EU nor the World Bank have even mentioned environmental problems in their latest strategy for the Western Balkans power and energy strategies. While the EU may not care, the local communities do: they have nothing to gain and a lot to lose from these projects,'' says Podic.

The sacrifice of the river isn’t even worth it. Most of the small hydro plants in the region produce no more than 1 megawatt (MW) each — roughly enough to power 750 homes, but environmentalists say they disrupt fish migration routes and pose a threat to dozens of species, including the Danube Salmon and Balkan Lynx.

“In a world in which the climate is changing, the value of hydro becomes more uncertain,” says Peter Gleick of the Oakland, California–based Pacific Institute. “We know that one of the worst impacts of climate change will be impacts on water—on droughts, on floods, on demand [via increased evaporation].”

Eco-Tourism

With almost a decade of ethnic conflict now fading into memory, the Balkans are rebuilding their economies on tourism, not only promoting their rich history but also marketing to eco-tourists seeking wilderness adventures such as hiking, kayaking, white-water rafting and caving.

Figure 3 Henrik søvang [CC BY 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Ecotourism means responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment and improves the well-being of local people. Growing interest in fly fishing in Bosnia indicates the potential for ecotourism as a way to align economic growth with protecting natural ecosystems.

The women of Bosnia have united to stand against the rash of dam-building, defending Bosnia-Herzegovina’s freshwater resources and areas of rich natural biodiversity.

Locals are well aware of this. “Ninety-five percent of villagers in the area where Doljanka flows have signed a petition against the hydro plants, which would destroy local community’s plans to develop fly-fishing and sport fishing,” the Coalition for the protection of rivers in Bosnia, the NGO, said in a statement.

Call to Action to Defend Doljanka

At the moment, five excavators are destroying the river flow of Doljanka at the beginning of the season of the mulching of the endemic trout “glavatica”.  This type of hydropower plant does not use dams, but huge pipes inserted below the river bed, and this is planned for over three kilometers of the river.  The installation of these pipes completely and irretrievably destroys all life in the river.

The local community was not adequately involved in the process of obtaining a "permit", nor did a proper ecological study took place. The Environmental Impact Assessment for Doljanka scarcely mentions the river and claims that there will be “no negative ecological impacts on the river”. This document is an appeal to urgently stop the irreversible destruction of the Doljanka River and its complete ecosystem, which is of great importance for the municipalities of Jablanica and Neretva, one of the most beautiful and biodiverse European rivers (Doljanka is its right tributary).

Get involved today

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More about partner organizations 

Eko akcija, based in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, is working on pressing environmental problems in Bosnia and Herzegovina such as protection of its rich biodiversity, water supplies, air pollution, garbage disposal thru grassroots campaigns. They are founded by Green Visions who pioneered eco-tourism movement in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Gotusa are a grassroots community organizer from Fojnica and have been instrumental in the fight so far.

Earth Law Center works to transform the law to recognize and protect nature’s inherent rights to exist, thrive and evolve. This includes advancing the inherent rights of rivers through initiatives with local partners to secure rights recognition. 

ELC’s Universal Declaration of Rights of Rivers (available in English, Spanish and French) lays out the range of rights to protect and restore river ecosystem health, which can serve as input into local legislation. Dams, in particular, violate a river’s right to flow.

The Doljanka River is ELC’s second initiative in the Balkans, along with a bid to create a pesticide free zone in Serbia to save the endangered white-tailed eagle, in partnership with Earth Thrive.

The Indonesian Rainforest needs Earth Law to combat Palm Oil production

Figure 1 Photo by Fabrizio Frigeni on Unsplash

By Sara Bellan

What if Earth Law could help strengthen the protection of natural habitats critical to orangutan, and other animals, survival?

Nearly a quarter of a million Orangutans used to live on that this planet just a couple hundred years ago. Today less than 70,000 Orangutans remain. There are numerous threats to Orangutans, particularly those in the Indonesian Rainforest. Threats to the Orangutans include: habitat destruction, illegal hunting and animal trading. Upwards of 80% of Orangutan’s habitat has been lost in the last 20 years. Both Sumatran Orangutans and Bornean Orangutans face extinction in less than 25 years due to these practices.

What drives rainforest destruction?

Palm Oil Practices

Over 3 million pounds of palm oil was imported into the US in 2017, finding its way into everything from detergents to processed foods.  Around 50% of United States products contain palm oil. So, what is palm oil being used for? The US is not alone in its love of this cheap oil - rates of palm oil consumption have quadrupled around the world since the 1990s. The most common products that contain palm oil are shampoos, instant noodles, packages bread, lipsticks, soap and detergent.

Figure 2 Palm Oil Factory Sevki79 [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], from Wikimedia Commons

Most of the world’s palm oil comes from Malaysia (43%) and Indonesia (44%). Indonesia also happens to contain the world’s largest rainforest, with a diverse ecosystem and a large amount of biodiversity. This ecosystem, and biodiversity within it, is critical to the planet as a whole. The Indonesian rainforests host 12% of mammal species, 17% of the world’s bird species and 10% of the vascular plant species in the world. While palm oil, in itself, is not a bad resource, the practices within the industry are currently harmful. The continued use of this product relies on the improvement of the current practices within the palm oil industry.

Deforestation processes have drastically affected orangutans in Indonesia, as their habitat continues to shrink. But, other animals have been affected as well. These practices, particularly of deforestation and habitat loss, have caused animals to suffer and many to be listed as endangered. These animals that have been affected by these practices include: Sumatran Tigers, Javan Leopards, the Tapir, Javan and Sumatran Rhinoceroses, Sumatran Elephants, Sun Bears, and many others. The palm oil industry, and the practices that accompany it, have caused endangerment of Indonesian animals to be common throughout the ecosystem.

Figure 3 Indonesian rainforest in Aceh. Junaidi Hanafiah [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], from Wikimedia Commons

Palm oil has also affected the vast diversity of plants in Indonesia. The diversity of plants in Indonesia is so vast; it is matched only by the Amazonian ecosystem. About 40,000 species of flowering plants have been observed in Indonesia, with 40% of them only existing in this ecosystem. There are more than 3,000 different tree species that make up the rainforest in Indonesia. Much of this biodiversity is at risk due to deforestation and wildfires. 

Where palm plantations get established, deforestation occurs. Palm oil plantations require large plots of land, which require deforestation practices to create and expand the plantations. Extensive clearing not only removes critical habitat for endangered species, but also releases large amounts of carbon dioxide stored in trees. Indonesia has become the fifth highest emitter of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses due to these practices. Deforestation has also caused soil erosion, along with soil and water pollution from palm oil extraction, and decreases rainfall absorption thus increasing the risk of floods.

Humans suffer, too. Palm oil has been identified as one of the most common sources of forced work and child labor in the world, by the United States Department of Labor. The co-violations report provided by ELC state, “The displacement of local communities from their traditional lands, the destruction of waterways and other natural systems relied upon by communities for sustenance, the pattern of labor abuse and slavery arising from the palm oil industry, and the deaths of thousands of people from palm oil industry-related fires implicates multiple human and indigenous rights violations.” 

Workers report illegal servitude and debt bondage. “Investigations into cases of forced and child labor in Indonesia’s palm oil industry have revealed workers and children being held captive, deprived of clean drinking water, working without pay for up to two years, and beaten when escape is attempted.” Land grabs, meaning the government or businesses taking or bribing land from the original residents, have been common in the palm oil industry. Land grabs to expand palm oil plantations have largely impacted poor and indigenous populations, leading to the displacement of entire communities.

A solution: Rights for the Indonesian Rainforest           

The Universal Declaration of the Rights of Mother Earth has outlined the right to exist, right to regenerate, right to health and the right to supported restoration after known violations in Indonesia. These rights are critical to maintain for the ecosystem, biodiversity and people within Indonesia. While palm oil can still be a utilized and beneficial resource, as it can be more sustainable than other vegetable oils the current practices that are being implemented in the palm oil industry are not working. Instead of boycotting palm oil or trying to eradicate the use of palm oil all together, we can advocate for more sustainable practices, less deforestation practices and more use of already bare land, and create protections for the animals within the Indonesian Rainforest.

Earth law could enable local communities to have legal standing in the courts. This would allow citizens to address both environmental and human rights violations. Earth Law could provide a backing for people to address these issues through the legal system, and through the courts. As this would outline rights for the ecosystem and habitats in Indonesia, it could prevent further human rights violations as well. People could bring forth a case that would help to prevent the degradation of the ecosystem, and as a result provide rights for the people within Indonesia against the large palm oil industry. This would help to provide a safety net for human rights violations, as well as animal and earth rights violations. 

Governance and management plans that recognized the rainforest’s right to exist, thrive and evolve would also support a healthy ecosystem while preserving and restoring biodiversity. Rainforest rights are critical in Indonesia, and have shown drastic results in other places. In Colombia, the Amazon Rainforest was granted personhood and rights along with this status. A group of young human rights advocates sued the Colombian government in an effort for their right to exist within a healthy ecosystem and environment. This group of young advocates won this case, through the intersections of human rights violations and earth rights violations. This granted personhood to the Amazonian Rainforest within Colombia. This status gave rights to the rainforest and urged the government to reevaluate their relationship with the rainforest. This move towards providing rights for the Rainforest in Indonesia could help prevent further deforestation, human rights violations, animal rights violations, and help sustain a healthy ecosystem.

This move toward rights was not alone, as a national park in New Zealand was provided legal rights. The now former national park, Te Urewera, was a large plot of land that was owned by the government up until this case. Te Urewera is located on a small Island within New Zealand that is the home to the Maori population. Maori groups presented this case in an effort to preserve the region's ecosystem and their land. The result of the case was that the Te Urewera land was recognized as having all the legal rights and protections of a human. This allowed for violations against the land to be brought to the courts, and protected through legal channels. This case can set an example for the Indonesian case, as the rights of the land and the people within the land were intertwined. Through the case of Te Urewera, an example of legal protections for the land can be seen. 

The Indonesian Rainforest deserves rights and protections to exist, thrive and evolve. The Colombian Amazonian case and the New Zealand Te Urewera case show that rights provided to the ecosystem can protect everything encompassed within that land. Legal rights for the Indonesian Rainforest would protect from deforestation, protect the population from land grabs and intentional wildfires, protect the workers from illegal and unsafe working conditions, and protect the animals and plants from endangerment and unhealthy habitat conditions, while still allowing for the use of palm oil in some of our products.

ELC works to provide the earth with legal support and legally recognized rights. We work to create laws and protections that recognize the rights of nature. If you would be interested in learning more about Earth Law’s work on the rights of nature, you can sign up to receive our newsletter here.

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Securing Rights for the Ein Lavan Natural Spring

Figure 1 Ein Levan by Ynissim (with permission) https://www.deviantart.com/ynissim/art/Ein-Lavan-326279470

By Rachelle Adam

Earth Law Center Board Director Rachelle Adam, who teaches environmental law at the Law Faculty at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, is working to protect the Ein Levan Natural Spring from intense urban development. 

Where is the Ein Lavan Spring?

Ein Lavan, “White Spring”, named for the white color of surrounding bedrock, is located in the Refaim Stream National Park in Jerusalem. The spring flows year-round out of a cave from its groundwater source, streaming into two ancient pools built into the hillside landscape. Ein Lavan is part of a narrow ribbon of similar springs encompassing Jerusalem, together with the archaeological remains of ancient settlements and biblical agricultural landscapes.

In addition to its importance as a water source for the rich biodiversity of the area, Ein Lavan, as a naturally flowing spring in an urban setting within an arid country, is unique in the cultural and recreational services it provides to the public.  Israel has few surface water sources, and hence the value of Ein Lavan, widely used by landlocked and beach-less Jerusalemites, “thirsty” for a dip in a natural spring during the long and hot summers.

Threats to the Ein Lavan Spring

Despite its significance as a precious water source and provider of varied ecological services, Ein Lavan is under threat by a development plan for 5,000 housing units in “Reches Lavan” - “white mountain ridge”. 

Reches Lavan is a key Jerusalem nature site comprising Ein Lavan’s watershed area, extending throughout this forested natural area planned for construction. Reches Lavan has been defined as being of high hydrological sensitivity and expert opinions hold that in all likelihood construction of the new neighborhood will dry up Ein Lavan and other springs in the area. 

The construction will block underground flow paths to the spring,  sealing it off from its natural inflow. Moreover, by covering the area with cement and asphalt, the construction will effectively destroy ecosystem functions of rainwater percolation, as well as the ecosystem services that supply clean air and drinking water for Jerusalem’s human population, carbon sequestration, oxygen generation, climate regulation, soil creation and conservation, biodiversity support, and cultural and recreational services.

Yet despite the critical contribution of these services to the health and welfare of Jerusalem’s residents, the decision to deposit the plan was approved without an in-depth discussion on the impact of their loss. The Jerusalem regional planning committee decided that although “ …the local springs have great importance ecologically and historically and are a cultural and recreational resource… even if after all efforts to prevent it, the springs dry up, the public need for this plan justifies its approval, despite its impact on the springs.” 

Underlying factors

An in-depth understanding of the threats to Ein Lavan requires identifying the underlying factors that led to Israel’s environmental crisis. Israel’s population is growing rapidly and by 2065 will reach 20 million from the current 8.7 million today. It is experiencing high economic growth, together with fast-growing consumption and a rising standard of living.

Figure 2 Hadera Desalination Plant By עברית: אין מידע [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Furthermore, geographically Israel is located in an arid region characterized by chronic water scarcity - by 1980, water use reached total capacity of freshwater. Israel has historically solved its water shortage by creating more water. Israel makes extensive use of treated wastewater effluents for irrigation in agriculture and today roughly 90 percent of the wastewater generated in Israel is reused, making it the world’s leading country in water reuse.

Since the beginning of this century, Israel ranks high in the production and use of desalinated water: approximately 70 percent of Israel’s drinking water supply is desalinated water. The question of the sustainability of such extensive desalination looms large over Israel’s formidable success in overcoming its chronic water scarcity. Nevertheless, an admirable goal of government policy in its sweeping use of desalinated water, was to cut back on pumping groundwater to allow the restoration of natural inflow to denigrated streams and springs.

Israel’s high rate of population growth has led to a demand for housing, leading to the loss of natural areas to new neighborhoods, as exemplified by the development plan threatening Ein Lavan.

Human-Nature conflict 

Ein Lavan illustrates the conflict between the rights of humans to habitat/shelter, versus the rights of nature to water/habitat/shelter. Does this focus on human rights, the right to shelter, to water, to property, to employment, to a family, while a worthy and necessary pursuit, encourage economic growth, consumerism, and population growth, the underlying causes of ecosystem destruction?  And at the expense of nature, which lacks these rights? 

Hence evolved the concept of rights for nature, to level the playing field and prevent human misuse of water that nature needs for its own survival. For if humans’ rights to water are legally recognized, so should nature’s rights to water. As Yuval Noah Harari notes in Sapiens, “Human laws and norms have turned some people into slaves and others into masters.” Drawing an analogy to the master versus slave relationship, existing laws and norms have turned nature into a slave for humans by turning it too into property, denying nature those rights that could ensure its recognition as a legal entity with basic needs to be realized.

Nature’s Right to Water under Israeli Law

How do Israel’s laws relate, if at all, to this situation? The Water Law evolved from a legal tool for development to a law protecting nature’s rights to water. At its initial adoption in 1959, water was perceived as a commodity for development. Yet evolving together with the growing awareness of the environmental crisis, a new chapter on pollution prevention was added in 1971.  In 1992, stronger enforcement provisions were added to the law to strengthen pollution control. And in 2004, the law finally evolved to granting nature the right to water, together with the urban, farming, and industrial sectors,  guaranteeing water for “conservation and restoration of nature and landscapes, including springs, streams and wetlands”.

This amendment was a direct response to the dismal state of Israel’s streams, reflecting the extreme urban, industrial and agricultural development of the past 70 years that had dried up wetlands and transformed streams into drainage and sewage canals. Stream restoration became a national priority, supported by a 2000 government decision allocating 50 million cubic meters of water annually for stream restoration.

In 2002, a government masterplan for water management implementing allocations for stream restoration, defined nature as a legitimate consumer of water. In 2003 the government issued a landmark policy paper entitled “Nature’s Right to Water”, recognizing that streams’ right to water means entitlement to their own inflow and not water from the national grid.

The concept of  streams’ rights to water was now driving government policy, which led directly to the 2004  “nature’s right to water” amendment to Water Law. The explanatory note to the amendment clarified that “…the proposed law will create a legal framework for restoration…of … wetlands. … it is proposed to add nature and wetlands to the list of those entitled to water and establish a right to water for nature…  Thus, nature will also be taken into consideration when allocating water.”

Ein Lavan’s legal status

Yet as noted above, when the issue is the right of the public to housing versus the right of Ein Lavan to water, the government decided that the public has priority – “the public  need for this plan justifies its approval, despite its impact on the springs.”  If the plan is finally approved despite its impact on the spring and nature generally, environmental organizations and activists will undoubtedly petition for judicial review. 

Can Ein Lavan also petition the court? The law recognizes the right of the spring to water, but does not go further and declare the stream a legal person: while the original intention was to declare wetlands a legal entity, this provision didn’t make it to the final version of the amendment. Streams and springs are legally entitled to water, but as discussed above, in the conflict between humans’ rights to shelter and streams’ rights to water, humans have priority over nature. Whether or not Ein Lavan would be allowed into court as a formal petitioner, remains to be seen.

Could the public trust doctrine support the spring’s standing in court? Under Sec. 2 of the Water Law, “Israel’s water sources belong to Israel’s public, subject to the control of the state”. Hence  government  officials are public trustees for protecting the country’s ecosystems, streams, springs, plants, wildlife, biodiversity, but for the public as beneficiary and not for the actual ecosystem, stream or spring.  An alternative would be to turn the public into trustees for nature as the beneficiary, but this would entail new legislation, always problematic.

Implementing the law

The 14 years that have passed since the 2004 amendment to Israel's Water Law allows a broad perspective on the law’s implementation, and the challenges that constantly arise. Recognition of importance of inflow of the stream’s natural water – right of the stream to its own water – has led to water allocations of natural water rather than from the national grid. Moreover, a government stream restoration project is well underway for polluted streams.  But overdrawing from aquifers continues,  and together with an ongoing drought and decrease in aquifer recharge, the  result is a scarcity of in-stream flow, and a serious downward trend in spring resurgence in the north of Israel, where as yet no desalination plant has been constructed to replace freshwater with desalinated water.

Despite the improvement in their legal status, Ein Lavan and other springs in the area of the plan remain silent stakeholders, not even warranting an in-depth hearing regarding their fate.

The situation today

While government bureaucrats and planning committees, under pressure by politicians, have swiftly moved ahead with the development plan, it’s advance through the planning process has meanwhile come to a standstill following legal and political hurdles.

One obstacle holding the plan back from final approval, is that the special examiner appointed by the government to hear the substantial number of objections submitted against the plan by a diverse group of objectors - including neighboring local community councils, local residents, and environmental organizations, as well as Jerusalemites from across the city protesting the loss of Jerusalem’s remaining natural areas – has not yet submitted his findings. But of course this time-out for Ein Lavan could end in a political flash

How can Earth Law Help

Now, imagine how it would be if the Ein Lavan Spring had broader and more defined rights, as well as a right of standing so that it could stand up for its legal rights in a court of law. Rights that would include the right to flow; the right to perform essential functions within its ecosystem; the right to be free from pollution; the right to feed and be fed by sustainable aquifers; the right to native biodiversity; and the right to restoration.

Figure 3 New Zealand’s Whanganui River, the world’s first river to gain legal rights recognition. By Jacqui McGowan. Uploaded to Flickr by Marianne Archibald [CC BY 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Personhood for rivers has already been recognized in New Zealand, India, and Colombia, and nature’s inherent rights are  recognized in the countries of Bolivia and Ecuador as well as Mexico City and over 30 municipalities in the US.

If the Ein Lavan Spring had similar legal rights, then unsustainable exploitation that would impair those rights could be challenged, with the spring itself having standing in a court of law. In practice, humans would have to stand in a court of law to enforce such rights on behalf of the spring, acting as legal guardians – a model that is already familiar to lawyers who represent children, disabled persons, and so forth. This model would in turn empower local communities, environmental groups, and others seeking to support the spring’s rights.

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Call and Response: Letting Diverse Languages Have Their Turn to Speak

Figure 1 Photo by Diomari Madulara on Unsplash

By Emma Szymanski

You are reading this. This is written in English. English is one of many of the world’s languages (in fact, it very much dominates the existence of other languages). Language is embedded with unique characteristics per tradition and each language offers something new to the experience of human life on this Earth. It’s even in our grammar—we learn early on in American schooling that nouns refer to “persons, places, or things” and yet we don’t consider how rigidly our language marks the distinctions between those three entities. Where are you while reading this? Who is with you? Did you forget that you’re not the only living being wherever you are now? 

Right now, as you are reading this, as I am writing this, you are thinking. We are thinking together, taking on an encounter beyond the confines of time and distance. You also must be breathing, given that you’re alive and you’re able to read this; both of our sets of many, many cells must be pumping and churning well enough for us to be here. Isn’t that astounding? (Maybe I appreciate it more after I’ve forgotten and can remember again).

Figure 2 Photo by Louis Maniquet on Unsplash

You are reading this on the Earth Law Center blog page, so by now you’re probably at least somewhat aware of the detriment to the living planet (which always includes us, both as members of it and also as the causes of this destruction to it). But let me ask something a little more focused and articulate: how can we explore and consider alternative ways of thinking, learning, and being in this world as a way to cooperate in confronting the greatest issues that this species and this Earth have ever faced?

(Admittedly, this is a big question to try to approach. So here’s one, alinear attempt).

The Earth not only provides gifts among its natural systems for all its life-forms, but it expresses its living need to thrive and persist—the activities of evolution—and thus manifests life itself through a wealth of diverse wildlife.

Through language we can, as human beings, communicate as a permeation between our otherwise disconnected, individual perspectives, and thereby pass on knowledge, convey meaning, and join to collaborate in maintaining our own but also others’ survival (in a mode of defense). With our words we cross the thresholds between one mind and another. A conversation is an exchange of more than one voice, and periods of listening versus speaking. Call and response.

Have you been listening enough? Have you listened to the Earth today? Maybe you might have noticed some birds singing compulsively outside, but when was the last time you received the choral melody of the wind? Have you ever really heard its breath as exactly that—a cyclical exchange of respiration, inhale, exhale, traveling air? (I remember being just a few years old in my grade school music class learning about the development of music from the “call and response” in work songs sung by slaves and how this later informed the musical stylings of jazz and rock & roll in the generations that followed. We should never forget all the suffering and strength that gave birth to such potentiality in music [MOU1]).

What is a song? Air and particles traveling and shaking a certain way—and when someone sings, the air and energy vibrate and release a certain way. Can’t you hear the breeze’s song? Here one moment, spinning and humming, gone in the next. Listen closely and maybe you can make out the lyrics. Maybe you can sing back, compose the words to the refrain.

Potawatomi botanist Robin Wall Kimmerer, in her book Braiding Sweetgrass, writes that language “can encode significant information concerning species interactions” (435), as well as constitute a coherent framework for perceiving and engaging with the living planet. Among the subtleties, the nuances, and even the soundscapes of distinct languages—such as the “sounds like wind in the pines and water over the rocks” among hardly discernible Potawatomi phrases which do not contain an extensive alphabet (53), their unique intricacies create fertile, inexhaustible meaning for their speakers.

Currently, according to data collected by the organization Terralingua, even though there are an estimated 6,975 human languages still in existence, the cultural-linguistic elasticity—of both language(s) and of the members of the associated culture(s)—can often no longer endure in today’s world. So, even if there are nearly 7,000 remaining languages, most of which belonging to localized and/or indigenous populations decreasing in number, the speakers—the sacred bearers, the life-givers of a certain language and all of their secrets, the immeasurable possibilities, the intergenerationally shared wisdom they can offer—often disappear along with the culture itself.

Promoting linguistic diversity is a fundamental human obligation in ensuring mutual ecocultural survival, beyond just the scope of language and culture. Or at least we need to start thinking about the gross decline of linguistic diversity in the way we think about the world’s great wildlife loss. 

When one species among the multiplicity of Earth’s life forms dies out, it loses its ability to meaningfully participate in the shared natural experience of life: all other life also suffers a great loss as a result. An untimely death of unexplored perspectives, squandered abilities, and forsaken co-existence. The thriving must be equally and unequivocally shared, rather than hoarded by a select few. This is true for species of life, and true for species of living language, too.

Figure 3 Photo by rawpixel on Unsplash

Though I remain cynical towards the English language and Western culture, thought, and practice at large—from its inseparability from the economic systems that sustain it, to our society’s alienation from other living beings and the natural, unmanufactured world—this does not mean I can (easily or “conveniently”) abstain from complicit involvement in its perpetuation as a global power, nor can I fully escape from the linguistic-cultural norms instilled in my conceptual framework from my early childhood development and on. None of us totally can. English is everywhere, even if not everybody speaks it, thanks to globalism. 

Yet I think back to my own falling-out with my first language, Polish, and the erasure flooding my capacity for understanding and expression from the outside-in. I lament at the loss of the language in which my mother sang lightly against my tired eyes, the ease of communication with aging and increasingly distant relatives, and especially of the privilege of speaking in secrecy among those who do not understand the gifts this complex Slavic tongue only gives to the most patient of learners or the most irritated of young children. I all too hastily abandoned this power of my familial descent—then again, I was only six years old—in order to “fit in” at school and sacrifice my inherited mysteries so that I could instead understand the jokes in English in televised cartoons.
I have quite literally lost the ability to articulate myself in Polish, to inscribe my own meaning within its unique sets of communication. Fortunately, I can still translate in my head and understand when spoken to, but I cannot reply. It is so important that I can still listen, can still hear the calls passed on through my ancestry, but for now, until my Polish improves again, I cannot respond. This causes me deep sorrow.

But somewhere in the most pleasant corners of my memory I can hear my mother’s words tracing my palm, reciting a nursery rhyme about a mother bird and her five hungry children. My own mother’s finger circles the center of my hand with the most delicate touch, singing a rhythmic melody. Each finger of mine she touches and shakes, saying something along the lines of, “this one got a bowl,” “this one got a cup,” and on, until she grabs my final digit and an untranslatable, silly phrase said only for the sake of shared laughter: and this one got “fiku-miku! Fiku-miku! Fiku-miku!” I am mercilessly tickled and then tucked in under a white blanket, feeling secure and treasured if I get to share the bed with my parents.
I still often wonder if it is too late to return to the same linguistic-cultural tradition my parents grew up in, if only to get a glimpse into how it might have developed their formative worldviews, how and why they could have become the loving, hard-working people that would, out of incredible generosity, would give me life. In a way, as I reflect on this now it feels as if my birth was a language in itself: my conception, my mother’s pregnancy, my emergence from the womb with a full head of hair, all together in one person, cast into this particular possibility of a world that could be inherited, a world that could exist and happen at all!

All this reflection is to say that we have to confront dominant monocultural structures, namely the paradigms ingrained by the English language and Western capitalist culture’s annihilation of the Earth. This includes climate breakdown, the mechanisms, economic structures that cause it as well as the consumptive patterns that only drive and perpetuate it. 

There’s a lot to be done among legislative policy and actual action both on the individual and collective levels, by consumers and the industrial sectors that cyclically drive and reinforce one another’s abuse of living systems.

There’s a lot to be said to get people’s attention. Consider this one alternative approach.

And yet, most importantly, there’s a lot of listening to do. 

Ultimately we must recognize, undo, and move away from the certain ideological frameworks deeply ingrained in dominant languages of commerce such as English. This is not to say that we should all stop speaking English; rather, we need to seriously and reflectively rethink our relations as humans to other living beings and the extent of our responsibility in the scheme of it all.

We don’t think about the air we breathe as something with a voice, something speaking or singing a song. Yet it is continually assaulted with pollutants that we inevitably take in like every other living thing that needs oxygen or carbon dioxide. If the air could sing a beautiful song, would we want it to choke? That’s a violent image, but still even doesn’t even come close to the graphic mutilation to the living fabric of the Earth on the daily.

We don’t think about the experiences of all the compiled carbon networks beneath our feet, living and passed—mycelia and decomposing beings and funky little worms and creatures that help the green grass grow.

People in this country don’t think about the truths existent and to be told in the languages they try to silence when they say, “just speak English!” or the frustration when they “don’t understand.” Of course you can’t understand a language you can’t speak—but why haven’t you at least tried to hear it?

I hope upon reading this you let others, not just human people, speak today. And that you let their voices be heard. We need to let the Earth speak, to hear it sing, much, much more than we do in the modern world today before we can respond and let tangible healing take place. How else can the conversation start? 

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A cool enough future

Our relationship is in a crisis. Too much stress has built up, and I feel responsible. Unrealistic expectations led to exploitation and intolerable pressure. We have tried to numb it. After long years of denial, we tried to rationalize why we were doing what we were doing. We wanted to address the problems just a little later, and now that we see that it’s not working, we resort to fantasy.

Part of the problem is that we have increasingly denied that our relationship with Nature is actually a relationship. We have objectified Nature instead of giving it the rights to flourish. And now we realize that humanity is killing off non-human Nature just as efficiently as the asteroid that caused the last mass extinction. Besides being impoverished by the loss, humans will also have a rough ride. Just have a look at the latest IPCC report and consider that we are not heading towards 1.5C or 2C, but more than 3C of warming.

With similar thoughts in mind, I gave this talk last year in Budapest, Hungary.

Source: pexels.com

I sometimes wonder why we are doing this. What do we really want for which we sacrifice so much?

For hundreds of years, humanity was a slave of production. People didn’t have enough. They had to put their energies into food production, the construction of buildings, and the manufacturing of goods. For a higher level of security and comfort, all the work they did looked reasonable. Accumulation was the order of the day.

Even my grandparents, they did everything to have more. Their struggle and the aspirations they had was the norm in the village, and the idealized work ethic of the country. And in fact, that gave my parents a head start in life: theirs was perhaps the first generation which didn’t really have to worry about famine, deadly infectious diseases or the forces of nature threatening the humans they loved. Just one more generation, and here I am, concerned about forces of humanity threatening the nature that I love.

In a matter of a few decades, everything has changed. Physical landscapes, daily worries and complete lifestyles. The way my grandparents lived was more similar to the life of the first Hungarians 1100 years ago than to my life – even though we knew each other very well. We could have achieved almost everything our ancestors were longing for. But that didn’t quite happen. Just when humanity could have escaped the slavery of production, we seem to have succumbed to the slavery of consumption.

Why do I say so? Because consumption takes up most of our time and attention. Consider three major ways how this happens.

First, compared to previous generations, we have a lot. Choosing, using and maintaining all these things takes up much time. There is such a variety of everything today that even the selection of products and services is difficult. Buying a computer or a flat or an insurance is a real hassle. Often we have to interact with dealers… Time consuming is a euphemism. It’s tiring.

In the use phase, consumption focuses our attention on given targets. When we change metro lines and see the ads on the wall, when we use our gadgets, our attention is directed to things that we do not fully control. You know this all too well. At the same time, we are losing connection with essential parts of life: in the artificial worlds built around ourselves we rarely see non-human creatures or even the stars, we are disconnected from birth and death and we are rarely prompted to reflect on meaning in this universe. More practical things fill the cognitive space.

We have to maintain the various things we have. If you have a large house, there will be many things to be done there. Normal housework can take several hours a week. Annoying administrative issues, such as talking to utility companies, is another vampire in terms of time and energy. Add to that that we also have to repair things: the small ones during the year, the large ones during the summer holidays, as many people do.

And this is not all. A second issue that makes us slaves of consumption is that even if we have a lot, we want more. But more consumption requires more money, which requires more work. This means that the slavery of consumption is very often a reason to not escape the slavery of production. Even if we could easily afford to work less, many of us don’t do that. Instead we stay in for just a little longer, as we often say to ourselves. Then after a few decades, we realize that time flew by. The most common regret of old people is that they worked too much. Can we learn from them?

A third issue that makes me talk about the slavery of consumption is that we keep each other in difficult conditions, sometimes close to slavery. We want cheap products. But products are often cheap because workers are underpaid, working conditions are bad, and environmental costs are not paid for. For this reason, many people will have poor jobs and nature will suffer. If you have a low salary and come out stressed from the workplace, you will want to be pleased at least as a consumer – so you will demand cheap products. The circle is closed.

More generally, our consumption has effects on others, while their consumption has effects on us. Take one example. Perhaps the deadliest killer in this country is air pollution, it kills ten times more people than traffic accidents. And the main reason for air pollution is that people heat with wood, waste and whatever they have, which pollutes villages and towns from October to April. Your smoke contributes to the death of many people around you and their smoke contributes to your death. This is a metaphor of how, through different types of consumption, we exploit each other. Through the consumption of various other goods and services, we regularly harm humans and other creatures elsewhere – and many of the problems we have can be traced back to their consumption.

Just a short glimpse at an average supermarket to show chains of exploitation. There are foodstuff there. Most of the sweet things are produced with palm oil, which destroys rainforests – and with that the home of native people there. Meat products that come from industrial style factory farms, which cause terrible suffering to chicken, pigs and cows, and alienates workers from animals. Then there are the fruits from the other end of the world: low wages there, high carbon footprint on the way. Then let’s jump to a shelf of cleaning products and personal care: most of these are tested on animals, which again causes unimaginable suffering to thousands of sentient beings. Half of these products are also poisonous in a way. Then there are the electronic gadgets, which contain minerals mined by children, actual slaves or people who are exploited, and these processes also create much pollution. There are clothes, produced in China or Bangladesh for peanuts. The ones produced from plastic then contaminate our waters with micro-fibers. It’s difficult to name a product that comes without serious problems.

And yes, many of us are quite privileged and have fewer issues as workers. But there are effects we cannot get away from, such as the loss of local green areas, deteriorating security or global climate change. And come on, how does it feel to live in such an unequal society? And how does it feel to see how nature vanishes in front of our eyes? It’s like water evaporating from a hot surface: the boundaries retreat, the big blocks disintegrate, and finally we forget that it ever existed. That is how nature disappears.

The small consumer decisions unite into bulldozers, concrete and plastic. We leave behind haze and trash. And a much warmer planet, with all its problems ranging from heat waves to mass migration. All this is aggravated by our choice of more consumption instead of better goals for ourselves and the society.

Source: pexels.com

Is this inevitable? Or perhaps the consumer society is nearing its end? If we stay, why? If we leave, how?

When discussing this a few weeks ago at a public event, the moderator asked the common question: Will people at one point realize that we should avoid the negative consequences or a looming disaster? Even though having knowledge about the chains of negative consequences is very important, I don’t think this is the right question to ask if we want people to believe in a different future and to make steps towards it. The right question, in my view, is whether there is an alternative path that is much more attractive than the current one. Is there a future that is cool enough to be desired?

And I think the answer is yes. This is a life in which there are fewer things to worry about, but more time to relax, to be with others, and to pursue our passions. For some people the choice is already there: my brother has just reduced his working time to 4 days a week at an IT company here in Budapest, and accordingly he gets 80% of his original salary, which is still enough. That gives him 3-day weekends every week. Isn’t that cool? Almost everyone else could do the same at his company because they all earn well. As a side effect, these people would consume less, which would improve the outlook for nature.

This is a life in which the old, eternal desires are more fulfilled – because the basic needs of people have not changed together with the technological environment. Imagine a world in which more and more people stop competing for money. That was in a sense useful in the old days of absolute scarcity, which meant that humans together had less than what they needed. But that time is gone. Now that we have enough collectively, it is not higher productivity that we should achieve through competition, but better sharing that we should achieve through cooperation. To put it more bluntly, the problem with the rat race is that even if you win, you are still a rat. How about being a wise man, instead? Or at least a cute chimp?

There are all these different fields of life where this kind of thinking has already become popular. Minimalist running shoes, calisthenics with minimal equipment, meditation with only one mind. Go for those, they take you forward. And connect this kind of thinking with the field you spend most time in, to have the largest positive impact.

Of course, there will be trade-offs. No one should ever believe that flying to distant locations is correctly priced today. Science says that you should add at least 100 euros per ton of carbon to the price of each ticket, which would significantly cut air travel. Don’t get me wrong, I am all for mind-broadening journeys, but not the one week vacations at the other end of the world because that is simply unsustainable. Sometimes the real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes. But more importantly, this change of lifestyle will not be a sacrifice, it will be liberation. If you don’t want that much, you will have all means to accomplish what you want. The promise of freedom is not in more consumption any more as it has been advertised for so long, from now on it’s in less consumption.

As for the collective change, you can be discouraged and say that unless others think so too, it will be futile. This is wrong. Wrong because your life will be different: you will have more clarity and find your directions easier. Wrong because if, for instance, you don’t produce plastic waste, then there will be that much less plastic waste on this planet. And wrong because change is non-linear: nobody knows when the new ethic of minimalism will become mainstream.

There are studies showing that children with fewer toys are more creative, have more focused attention, take greater care of the things they have, and have a higher level of satisfaction when they are without toys. They also go out from the buildings more – which, by the way, is not a particularly big feat because western children spend less time outside than prisoners – but still very important for their connection with other humans and non-humans. If all these things are true for kids, why would we think it is not true for the rest of us?

I see no reason. My vision is limited, but if you don’t see a reason either, then let’s create this new norm of minimalism in our societies. Apart from helping nature, this might well be the key to not fall from the slavery of production into the slavery of consumption. If you want to be free:

Have less, share more. Want less, live more. Have fun, but take care of others.

And be thankful. As I am for your attention. Thank you.

Source: pexels.com

Miklós was invited by the Earth Law Center to write this post. Get involved today.

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More about the author

Miklós Antal is an ecological economist at the University of Leeds. He writes and talks about post-growth economics: see a recent commentary on the feasibility of post-growth strategies, an essay on how we work, and a TEDx talk on going beyond consumption growth. He also studies electricity system transitions and environmental communication. See his research papers here. Contact Miklós on Twitter @Miklos_Antal or by email: antalmi[at]gmail.com

Philippines Establishes Guardians for Marine Mammals

View of the Philippines Sea from Cape Maubito, Taiwan. Photo by CEphoto, Uwe Aranas

By Michelle Bender and Darlene Lee

Rights of Nature has taken root in the Philippines. Earth Law Center and Philippines Earth Justice Center are exploring how to advance the movement further, specifically how to incorporate the Earth Law Framework for Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) into the country’s National System of MPAs. 

The Philippines Sea: Unparalleled biodiversity

Located in the Pacific Ocean, 7,100 islands and 36,000 kilometers of coastline make up the country of the Philippines.[i] 

Over 2,000 fish species, 22 species of whales and dolphins, 900 species of seaweed and more than 400 species of coral call the Philippine Sea home.[ii] The ocean matters to people too, with over 1 million Filipinos depending on it for their livelihoods (equal to 4 percent of the country’s gross national product).[iii]

Not many people know that the Philippines hosts unique and unparalleled marine biodiversity. Part of the Coral Triangle, the Philippine Sea is often referred to as the “Amazon of the Seas” where 70% of all known coral species in the world are found.[iv] Hence, protecting the biodiversity of the Philippine sea is important not just to the neighboring countries but to the larger marine ecosystem.

Bottom of the Philippine Sea By Carljohnthegreat [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], from Wikimedia Commons

Threats to the Philippine Sea

Pollution, fishing practices like dynamite fishing, and climate change threaten the health of the Philippine sea. Oil spills have continually impacted the Philippine sea and local communities. For example, in 2008 a coal spill off the coast of Bolinao caused an estimated 55 million dollars in damage.

As a result, three quarter of the mangroves have disappeared and 54% of the coral reefs are “badly damaged.”[v] 

Endangered species in the Philippine sea include: hawksbill sea turtles, giant clams, net coral, false flower coral, sei whales, blue whales, fin whales, loggerhead turtles, humphead wrasse, green turtles, spiny turtles, and frog-faced soft shell turtles among many others.[vi]

Focus on Philippine Rise

Philippine Rise (formerly known as Benham Rise) is a 13 million hectare undersea volcanic ridge region to the east of the Philippines.[vii] An ecologically important and biodiverse marine area, the Rise provides the only spawning ground for Pacific Bluefin Tuna, and the only place in the Philippines with 100% coral cover.[viii] It is considered “one of the Philippines’ last, best chances to protect old-growth coral reefs.”[ix]

The bluefin tuna, endangered for several years, has suffered a catastrophic decline in stocks in the Northern Pacific Ocean, of more than 96%. At current rates, the species will soon be functionally extinct in the Pacific. More than nine out of 10 of the species recently caught were too young to have reproduced, meaning they may have been the last generation of the bluefin tuna.[x]

The Philippines government has taken great strides to protect this area. On May 15, 2018, President Rodrigo Duterte signed a proclamation declaring 50,000 hectares of the Rise as a marine reserve. Approximately one third of this area was also designated as a no-take zone, closed to all human activities besides scientific research. Additionally, 300,000 hectares are managed with a ban against “active fishing gears.”[xi]

Considered a “potentially rich source of natural gas and other resources such as heavy metals,”[xii] the Philippines Rise faces threats from foreign oil extractors.  Local groups have organized to protect this area.

Benham Rise Map By National Mapping and Resource Information Authority (NAMRIA) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Lawsuit for Tanon Strait

Gloria Ramos, (now executive director of Oceana Philippines) and Rose-Liza Eisma-Osorio, created the Philippine Earth Justice Center.

The Philippine Earth Justice Center (PEJC) is a non-stock and non-profit corporation which was established to provide legal assistance to victims of environmental injustice, conduct policy research on the environment, advocate policy reforms, assist in building local capacities for environmental protection and promote sustainability and protection of human rights.

PEJC usually joins private individuals, helping them to assert their rights as a steward in various cases. It is also a duly recognized organization in the pursuit of the right to a balanced and healthful ecology in accord with the rhythm and harmony of nature guaranteed under the 1987 Philippine Constitution. PEJC is assisting victims of coal ash disposal in a community near a coal-fired power plant in Naga, Cebu. Other cases have involved indigenous peoples fighting against small-scale mining activities within their ancestral domain in Southern Philippines, coastal communities preventing reclamation activities, and fisherfolks with their communities asserting preferential rights over their municipal waters.

Philippine law permits any citizen to file an action before the courts for violations of environmental law. The Philippines are leaders of crafting environmental laws in the world. “Imagine, in the U.S., you can only go to court if you were already harmed by exploitative activities. In the Philippines, you can sue before you get harmed. It is preventive,” Gloria Ramos, Oceana said. 

The Philippines Earth Justice Center sued the government to protect the Tañon Strait from oil exploration and development. The Strait is the largest marine protected area in the Philippine sea.

Titled “Resident Marine Mammals of the Protected Seascape Tañon Strait et. al. V. Secretary Angelo Reyes et al." the marine mammals gained standing in the case. The Philippines Earth Justice Center was dubbed by the media as “guardians of marine mammals” in the case (and the name has followed them since). They contended “that there should be no questions of their right to represent the resident marine mammals since the primary steward, the government, had failed in its duty to protect the environment pursuant to the public trust doctrine.”

The court noted “the right to a balanced and healthful ecology, a right that does not even need to be stated in our Constitution as it is assumed to exist from the inception of humankind, carries with it the correlative duty to refrain from impairing the environment.” Also, due to the Constitution’s mandate to “protect and advance the right of the people to a balanced and healthful ecology in accord with the rhythm and harmony of nature” the court ruled in favor of nature, and reversed the contract that was granted to the company Japex allowing oil exploration activities, determining “no energy resource exploitation and utilization may be done in the protected seascape.”

This important precedent can help protect Benham Rise, ensuring the government adheres to legal frameworks such as the National Integrated Protected Areas System Act of 1992, and that community members adhere to their duties as stewards for the environment. 

What’s next for the Philippines Sea?

The country already allows the rights for citizens to sue on behalf of the environment. The next step is to recognize the rights afforded to nature in law. 

Communities are pushing for introduction of this legal framework in the country. On World Environment Day (June 5th), a wide caravan of groups called upon “increased protection for the environment and upholding of the rights of nature.”[xiii] Named “Salakyag” the march pushed for “a return to the culture of interconnection and full embrace of nature.”[xiv]

Gloria notes that “What is good for the environment is good for business, so we really need to change the mindset that protecting the environment and business interests are mutually exclusive.” This is what the rights of nature framework provides. It requires us to balance the rights of nature with humans, and ensures that economic benefits are not privileged over the benefits of a healthy environment.

Next steps to secure rights for the Philippines Sea

Rose-Liza Eisma-Osorio is working to “increase advocacy and work with groups calling for the rights of nature in the Philippine legal system.” This includes including rights of nature in future court cases to protect the environment and incorporating the Earth Law Framework into the national system of MPAs. 

The current framework is the National Integrated Protected Areas Act (NIPAS) of 1992, recently amended in 2018. This Act creates the system for protected areas in the Philippines and provides for their management. Under the Act, all recognized protected areas must have a management plan within one year, and a management board created for each. These boards must be comprised of government, local community, NGO, indigenous, private sector and academic institution representatives. Per the precedent set in the Tanon Strait case, there exists an opportunity for a representative to assume the role of the Guardian for the protected area. The introduction of guardians who represent the protected area’s interest is one way to incorporate the Earth Law Framework into NIPAS.

Additionally, environmental groups in the Philippines are currently drafting a rights of nature law to present at the National level. This initiative is also being supported by the Catholic Church.

 How you can help

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• Read more about the Philippine Earth Justice Center, Inc.
  

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[i] https://www.greenpeace.org/seasia/ph/PageFiles/533258/OD-2013-PH-SEAS.pdf

[ii] Id.

[iii] Id.

[iv] http://www.adb.org/sites/default/files

[v] https://oceana.org/blog/saving-philippines-last-untouched-coral-reefs

[vi] https://owlcation.com/stem/The-Top-Ten-Critically-Endangered-Animals-in-the-Philippines

[vii] http://benhamrise.com/

[viii] https://amp.rappler.com/nation/202776-dolphins-shaped-environmental-laws-philippines-benham-rise?__twitter_impression=true

[ix] https://oceana.org/blog/saving-philippines-last-untouched-coral-reefs

[x] https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/jan/09/overfishing-pacific-bluefin-tuna

[xi] https://amp.rappler.com/nation/202776-dolphins-shaped-environmental-laws-philippines-benham-rise?__twitter_impression=true

[xii] https://www.rappler.com/newsbreak/iq/164514-fast-facts-benham-rise

[xiii] http://www.kagay-an.com/salakyagstop-killing-environmentuphold-rights-nature/

[xiv] http://www.kagay-an.com/salakyagstop-killing-environmentuphold-rights-nature/

Rights for the Saint Lawrence River

Figure 1 Saint Lawrence River in winter from Le Massif near Baie-Saint-Paul, Quebec, Canada Source: Picture taken by Jan Zatko, Creative Commons

Yenny Vega Cárdenas, President of the International Legal Center for Nature’s Rights (CJID or Centre Juridique International des Droits de la Nature) and Nathalia Parra Meza, Vice-president of the same Centre, read about the Atrato River in Colombia gaining rights recognition which inspired them so much and then they decided to co-found CJID. Earth Law Center speaks with them about their initiative seeking rights recognition for the St. Lawrence River.

Meet the St. Lawrence River

Known by the Tuscarora as Kahnawáʼkye and by the Mohawk as Kaniatarowanenneh, (meaning "big waterway"), the Saint Lawrence River lies in the middle latitudes of North America.

The Saint Lawrence River flows in a roughly north-easterly direction, connecting the Great Lakes with the Atlantic Ocean and forming the primary drainage outflow of the Great Lakes Basin[i]. It traverses one part of the Ontario province In Canada, and is the hearth of the Province of Quebec (Canada) because the shores of the river are home to over 80% of Québec’s population[1].

Importance of the St. Lawrence River

For thousands of years, the Algonquin and Iroquois peoples have lived along its banks. From the 16th century onwards, the St. Lawrence served as a gateway for European settlers, explorers and fur traders. Habitants cultivated its shores in long narrow farms that gave each family access to the river.

River otters, beluga whales and more than 100 species of fish live in the St. Lawrence River. Meanwhile, its sandbanks and river reefs provide a seasonal staging area for massive flocks of migratory birds, including almost all of the world’s snow geese.[ii]

Figure 2 Taxiarchos228 [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)], from Wikimedia Commons

Threats to the St Lawrence River

“One of the biggest threats to the health of the St. Lawrence River is what the Petroleum Resources Act allows – oil and gas drilling and hydraulic fracking on Quebec’s territory,” states Carole Dupuis, general coordinator of the Quebec Hydrocarbon Vigilance Collective (RVHQ).

A study conducted in the US Appalachian basin and published in 2013 in the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences reveals that shale gas exploitation by means of fracking can have long-term effects on biodiversity and over an unusually large geographic area compared to other industries. The main long-term impacts, which are likely to be perceived over a large area, are habitat loss and fragmentation, chemical pollution, water quality degradation and alteration of the hydrological regime. Other effects, including noise and light disturbance and air quality degradation, may be more local and short-term.[iii]

Other threats include invasive species and water level regulation. The region's ecosystem is bending under the weight of the 186  species introduced into the River and Lakes. Some scientists worry that the ecosystem of the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River may be close to collapse because of these species.[iv]

With a massive hydropower dam blocking the River in the Massena/Cornwall region, water levels on the Upper St. Lawrence River are manually regulated. The management plan that has been in place for the past 50 years has caused significant damage to tens of thousands of acres of wetlands in the region as it doesn’t reflect the latest scientific understanding of how fragile riparian ecosystems are.[v]

Figure 3 By Ubergirl [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], from Wikimedia Commons

St Lawrence Belugas

Numbers of belugas dropped significantly in the 1900s due to commercial and recreational hunting for their flesh, hide and oils. Despite protections that were finally granted in 1979, the population has not recovered. Eighty per cent of Quebec’s beluga population lives along the shores of the St Lawrence River where 2 billion gallons (8 billion litres) of wastewater and industrial contaminants have been dumped.

These contaminants are absorbed by marine life in the river and then eaten by belugas further downstream. Studies have shown that the St. Lawrence belugas are one of the world’s most contaminated marine mammals. For decades, autopsies of belugas showed that many were dying of cancer. As people grew concerned over the quality of the drinking water from the St. Lawrence, chemicals like PAHs and PCBs were regulated in the 1970s.[vi]

More about the CJIDN Initiative for St. Lawrence River Rights

CJIDN intends to use research to promote the recognition of Nature's rights, with a focus on environmental justice and water rights. Like Earth Law Center, CJIDN provides legal advice while also taking legal action on behalf of partners and members, defending Nature's rights in front of international and Canadian tribunals.

Yenny Vega Cardenas says, "As an specialist in Water Law when I have heard about the recognition of the Atrato River as a non-human person in Colombia I was really inspired". She also told us that "is in that moment when I invited Nathalia Parra Meza to help me to start a research in that specific topic in the frame of an International Global Justice research project that I was co-chairing".

Both as lawyers in Colombia and in Canada, Yenny and Nathalia started the research and went to Colombia to meet the people involved in that case. They then co-wrote a paper in Spanish and English about the Atrato River case.  “We then decided to co-found the CJIDN and also had the possibility to host a summer school in Costa Rica related to the Rights of Nature, in which undergraduate and graduate law students from Montreal and Latin-America participated,” recalls Yenny. Students inspired by this theory, asked to join CJID as volunteers. In collaboration with Professor Daniel Turp, CJID co-authored a paper published in an important journal of the Quebec Province, about the possibility of giving rights to Saint-Laurence River[2].

CJID then started a petition to ask main political parties in Quebec to support the initiative, 1 week before the provincial elections!. With 400 signatures collected from both individuals and organizations. "With the help of three students, Anthony Breton, Inès Benadda and Laurence Sicotte, we sent it to many candidates from different political partis, just 2 days before the elections," says Yenny.

One party supports the petition and is now discussing inside the party to gain consensus. Students drafted a prelaminar French version of a bill recognizing rights to the River, and CJID is currently completing the draft which will be translated  into English.

CJID plans to "present the draft in French and in English to a supporter of the project, in order to ask the Parliament of Quebec to discuss the draft bill in order to recognize the St. Lawrence River as a living person".

Yenny says she is "convinced that Movement of the recognition of Nature's Rights snowballing, and is inspiring young leaders to change the traditional paradigm. We have to be more respectful not only with present and future generations, but also with all the species that inhabited the planet."

To get involved today:

• Sign up for Earth Law Center’s email

• Volunteer with Earth Law Center

• Donate to Earth Law Center

More about International Legal Center for Nature’s Rights (CJID) https://www.cjidnature.org/

Yenny Vega Cardenas, Présidente

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[1] http://www.mddelcc.gouv.qc.ca/eau/flrivlac/fleuve_en.htm

[2] https://www.ledevoir.com/opinion/idees/526919/faire-du-saint-laurent-un-sujet-de-droit

[i] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Lawrence_River

[ii] http://watershedreports.wwf.ca/#ws-21/by/threat-overall/profile

[iii] https://baleinesendirect.org/en/drilling-near-the-st-lawrence-a-threat-to-marine-mammals/

[iv] http://www.savetheriver.org/index.cfm?page=app.riverissues

[v] http://www.savetheriver.org/index.cfm?page=app.riverissues

[vi] https://www.cbc.ca/natureofthings/m/features/threats-facing-the-st.-lawrence-belugas

How Earth Law Supports Animal Rights

Source: Elephants pexels.com

By Hannah Fitzpatrick

On July 4th, 2018, the Uttarakhand High Court in the northern region of India ruled that all animals have the same rights and legal status as humans, and cannot be treated simply as property. In this historic ruling, a Division Bench of Justices Rajiv Sharma and Lokpal Singh not only granted all animals this distinct status, they also issued a series of steps that would be taken in order to prevent cruelty against animals.[i]

These directions towards preventing animal cruelty in this Indian district include provisions such as the following:

• Restriction of the amount of load allowed to be pulled by various animals according to the kind of carriage being pulled

• Restriction of the amount of riders per carriage pulled by an animal

• Banning of the use of sharp tackle or equipment on animals

• Veterinarians of Uttarakhand must treat any stray animals that are brought to them[ii]

This decision has made all residents of the district of Uttarakhand legally responsible for the welfare and protection of animals, similar to how parents are legally responsible for the welfare of their children.[iii] Despite this groundbreaking step in the fight for animal rights, it is likely that the Indian Supreme Court will overturn this ruling. That does not mean that the growing global movement to extend our ethical considerations to animals will stop.

Animals Are a Lot Smarter Than We Think 

An increasing number of studies suggest that animals may possibly possess cognitive abilities similar to that of humans, contrary to popular wisdom.

“Mental Time Travel” in Animals 

Episodic memory, also known as “mental time travel”, is a type of long-term memory that allows people to recall past events and experiences in a serial form, from which we can reconstruct the actual events that took place at any given point in our lives.[iv] This is an extremely vital skill when it comes to human intelligence, because this type of long-term memory allows people to develop complex strategies to solving problems. However, according to University of Kentucky psychology professor Thomas Zentall, humans are not the only species known to have episodic memory.

In Zentall’s 2013 study “Animals Represent the Past and the Future”, he argues that episodic memory has been observed in a number of species such as dolphins, birds, rats, and pigeons. For example, regarding birds, Zentall references a previous experiment conducted by British psychologist Nicola Clayton on the natural caching, or food hiding, behavior of certain types of birds. After several trials, Clayton discovered that the birds learned to cache food in areas where they knew they’d be hungry the following day, and made sure that their favorite food was cached in such a way that they’d always have access to it in the future. Zentall then conducted a similar experiment involving pigeons, and came to an identical conclusion.[v]

Source: By Ingrid Taylor, San Francisco, CA (Western Scrub Jay) [CC BY 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/w.0)]

Animals similar in genetic makeup with humans, such as bonobos and orangutans, are also known to possess this ability of “mental time travel”. In a 2006 study conducted by psychologists Nicholas Mulcahy and Josep Call, when these animals practiced using tools to retrieve food, they eventually started to take the practiced using tools to retrieve food. These results suggest that not only do these animals have episodic memory, but, after conducting multiple experiments, that this ability has evolved over millions of years.[vi]

Prairie Dogs and Language

In multiple studies conducted by Northern Arizona University professor and psychologist Con Slobodchikoff over the past 30 years, there have been numerous discoveries about the way prairie dogs – whose natural habitat is within the Arizona desert – communicate. The most significant discovery made was in Slobodchikoff’s 2009 study that analyzed their behavior when the prairie dogs were threatened.

Source: Prairie Dogs pexels.com

After first observing how a colony of prairie dogs reacted to the presence of predators, he discovered that they didn’t just give the same alarm call each time – it sounded different depending on what type of predator the prairie dogs saw. He also noticed that even though the calls signaling a certain type of predator would follow a distinct pattern, they contained small nuances that varied with each individual predator of that type.[vii] This was further confirmed in a 2014 study in which after putting dogs, humans, and simple shape cutouts of all different forms, sizes, and colors within sight of the prairie dogs, analysis of the prairie dog calls revealed that the squeaks of alarm were different for each predator cutout presented to them.[viii] 

The Evolution of Animal Rights

Though the animal rights movement seems to be a recent development in modern society, it has actually been a cause that has been around for thousands of years, but initially from more of a philosophical point of view. For instance, the Greek philosopher Aristotle placed all living things in a hierarchy and claimed animals were high on the hierarchy, and should be treated as such, because they possessed “nutritive and sensitive souls”. Medieval philosopher and Catholic priest Thomas Aquinas that because of the hierarchy of creation imposed by God, all animals should be treated with the upmost respect. However, both Aristotle and Aquinas mention that humans are above animals because they do not have the ability to reason.[ix]

However, the idea of the legal rights of animals dates as far back as the ancient Greek and Roman empires. For instance, Roman law described wild animals as “…having no owner, thus belonging to no one,” though the only restriction on this was if there were wild animals on someone’s property.[x]

The Nonhuman Rights Project is the only civil rights organization in the United States working through litigation, public policy advocacy, and education to secure legally recognized fundamental rights for nonhuman animals and believes that “Humans are not the only animals entitled to recognition and protection of their fundamental rights.”[xi] According to the Nonhuman Rights Project Executive Director, Kevin Schneider, “Whether we’re talking about vulnerable human beings or nonhuman animals like our chimpanzee and elephant clients, legally enforceable rights are critical to helping individuals protect and, if necessary, regain their liberty and dignity—especially in circumstances where they might otherwise be powerless to confront the people or institutions responsible for depriving them of these vital aspects of existence.”[xii]

Though common law mainly views animals as property, numerous people, governments, and organizations (including Earth Law) see them as equals. They are living beings, just like humans, and should be protected at all costs. Anti-cruelty laws have been around since the establishment of the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1641, when they issued a statute stating that no one in the colony could exercise any sort of cruelty to any animal surrounding them unless it was for hunting food.[xiii]

So why are animals, such as orcas, are still having issues with cruelty, decreased population, and the threat of extinction?

What Is Earth Law, and How Does It Support Animal Rights?

One answer has to do with how we see the world. If a human-centric worldview justifies the continued suffering and extinction of animal species, an earth-centric worldview holds that humans are one part of an interconnected web of life on Earth and dependent on that web for survival.

Drawing from both indigenous world views as well as a decades long movement for Rights of Nature, Earth Law holds that nature has inherent rights and legally deserves the same protection as people and organizations. At Earth Law Center, we recognize nature’s right to exist, thrive and evolve: enabling nature to defend these rights in court and protecting nature the way common law protects humans.

But how exactly do we do this?

• Working with local partners to establish legal rights for animals

• Submitting Amicus Briefs to relevant court cases to bring an Earth Law perspective into consideration

• Providing pro bono legal research and writing to include animal rights provisions in amendments to the law sought by local animal rights activists

The Case of Southern Resident Orcas

Earth Law Center is partnering with Legal Rights for the Salish Sea (Gig Harbor community group), the Nonhuman Rights Project and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals to seek rights recognition for the endangered Southern Resident Killer Whale population and eventually for the Salish Sea.

Source: Southern Resident Orcas By NOAA Fisheries (anon.) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Southern resident killer whales, also known as orcas, are a tightly knit, matrilineal community of whales found within the northeastern region of the North American Pacific Ocean. This community of whales consists of three pods – J pod, K pod, and L pod. Each pod has a characteristic dialect of calls, or sounds, to communicate, though certain calls are common between all three pods. The calls used by the Southern Resident community are unlike the calls used by any other community of killer whales. These calls can travel 10 miles or more under water.[xiv] 

This community of orcas is listed as an endangered species under the Endangered Species Act by the National Marine Fisheries Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration as of 2006.[xv] As of June 2018, the total population of southern resident killer whales is 74 whales (J Pod = 23, K Pod= 18, L Pod = 34). And based on the population trend published by the Center for Whale Research every July, it is still decreasing.[xvi] 

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, some steps have been taken in order to protect this whale species and prevent its population from further declining. For instance, in March 2018, Governor Jay Inslee of Washington State issued an executive order that listed efforts that should be made to preserve the southern resident killer whales from extinction. 

Some of these efforts include expanding training programs that teach whale-watching vessels how to assist in the event of an oil spill, reviewing and amending (as needed) recreational and commercial fishing regulations prioritizing protection of key areas and fish runs for southern resident orca recovery, and prioritizing funding for storm water mitigation projects that contribute to southern resident recovery.[xvii] Also, earlier this month, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and their partner organizations mobilized to take care of an emaciated and ailing three year old orca off the Northwest Pacific coast.[xviii] Rights for the Southern Resident Orcas could strengthen the protection of this iconic animal to prevent its extinction.

Get Involved Today 

To help us in our efforts to support sustainable businesses, or in general, consider:

• Donate to ELC

• Sign up to volunteer at ELC

• Stay informed by signing up for ELC’s newsletter

• Connect with ELC on social media: Facebook, Twitter

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[i] https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/uttarakhand-hc-declares-animals-to-be-legal-persons/article24335973.ece

[ii] https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/uttarakhand-hc-declares-animals-to-be-legal-persons/article24335973.ece

[iii] https://allthatsinteresting.com/india-animals-same-rights-humans

[iv] http://www.human-memory.net/types_episodic.html

[v] http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/147470491301100307#_i3

[vi] https://www.eva.mpg.de/psycho/pdf/Mulcahy&Call2006SCI.pdf

[vii]https://www.researchgate.net/publication/24265753_Decoding_the_information_contained_in_the_alarm_calls_of_Gunnison_prairie_dogs

[viii] http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/281/1777/20132153

[ix] Burr, Steven I.; “Towards Legal Rights of Animals”; Boston College Environmental Affairs Law Review Vol. 4, Issue 2, Article 2; 1975

[x] Burr, Steven I.; “Towards Legal Rights of Animals”; Boston College Environmental Affairs Law Review Vol. 4, Issue 2, Article 2; 1975

[xi] https://www.nonhumanrights.org/

[xii] https://www.nonhumanrights.org/blog/values-principles-justice/

[xiii] Burr, Steven I.; “Towards Legal Rights of Animals”; Boston College Environmental Affairs Law Review Vol. 4, Issue 2, Article 2; 1975

[xiv] https://www.whaleresearch.com/orca-population

[xv] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_resident_killer_whales

[xvi] https://www.whaleresearch.com/orca-population

[xvii] http://www.psp.wa.gov/southern-resident-orca-task-force.php

[xviii] https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/feature-story/noaa-partners-mobilize-aid-southern-resident-killer-whale-j50

Daylighting La Bievre River in Paris, France

By VVVCFFrance [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], from Wikimedia Commons

Earth Law Center partners with Notre Affaire à Tous to seek rights recognition to continue the daylighting of La Bievre River in Paris, France.

Meet the Bievre River

Starting thirty-three kilometers (20 miles) away from Paris in the Yvelines and feeding into the Seine at Gare d’Austerlitz, the Bièvre once flourished as a vibrant river and has supported humans since the Neolithic period. The river was named after the beavers that lived on its banks (derived from the Gaul bèbros).[i]

Since the 11th century, the River Bièvre and its catchment area has been very heavily modified. Numerous mills were built along its course, which led to the straightening of the river. Increasing urbanisation and the establishment of industrial and craft activities along the Bièvre transformed it into an "open sewer". Starting in the 18th century, the river was gradually culverted. Today, the Bièvre forms a rainwater system. It has become an alternative means of transportation for wastewater when the sewers are out of action.[ii]

Centuries of overuse and abuse, from the businesses that depended on the Bièvre, polluted it so badly that it became a health hazard for Parisians. By 1912, the Parisian half of the river was completely concealed. Today it is a sad part of the Parisian sewage systems.[iii]

"Earth Law Center is proud to work with Valerie Cabanes, Notre Affaire à Tous (NAAT), and other leaders in France to daylight the Bievre River in enforcement of its right to be free" says Grant Wilson, Directing Attorney of Earth Law Center. "We also hope that daylighting the Bievre will inspire other communities to restore their entombed rivers," he adds.

Daylighting Hidden Rivers

Many towns and cities around the world have unseen flows of water which snake underneath concrete streets: ‘lost’ rivers which have been rerouted into sewers, drains and culverts as urban areas have grown.[iv]

River restoration – the restoration of water flows and aquatic life to a largely ‘natural’ state – has been a topic of increasing interest over recent years, and organizations such as the River Restoration Centre and the European Centre for River Restoration have formed to promote restoration work.

Deculverting or ‘daylighting’ is the process of uncovering buried urban rivers and streams, and restoring them to more natural conditions. Daylighting can create new habitat for plants and animals, potentially reduce flood risks, and create new ‘green corridors’ through urban areas. A good example is the highly successful restoration of the Cheonggyecheon stream in Seoul, South Korea.

Benefits of Daylighting Rivers

According to Adam Broadhead, who has created a daylighting website to map deculverting projects around the world, “Buried watercourses receive no sunlight, and so can be ecological deserts to life in the water and around the river banks (fish, birds, insects, plants, mammals). The darkness and other modifications to the channel often prevent passage of fish just like weirs do. Opening them back up can bring back all of this ecology, when done properly.

“Daylighted watercourses also have less of a flood risk due to underground blockages or collapse and it is easier to spot and tackle sources of pollution when you can see the water.  People can see and enjoy the wildlife that daylighted streams support, with knock-on positive effects for health and well-being, education and recreation.  Open watercourses can help to reduce the urban heat island effect and can (and are) being used to drive regeneration in downtown areas.”[v]

Freed River Case Studies

In Zurich, daylighting is actually enshrined in law. Known as the “Bachkonzept” or the “stream concept”, urban river restoration has been common practice in Switzerland’s largest city for 30 years. Urban rivers have been daylighted and integrated into Zurich in all manner of ways, such as complementing the local architecture. [vi]

By Smiley.toerist [CCBY-SA 4.0 (lhttps://creative commons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)] from Wikimedia Commons

The poster child of all daylighting projects is Seoul’s Cheonggyecheon River, completed in 2005. A brainwave of then-mayor and future president Lee Myung-bak, the project removed roads, buildings and virtually anything in its path to create an artificial waterway that joined up with the underground river at a cost of $900m (£615m). The 3.6 mile-long water corridor now acts as a major flood-relief channel and draws more than 60,000 visitors each day, transforming an area of Seoul previously renowned for crime. [vii]

In Auckland, more than 180 metres of underground piping and 5,000 cubic metres of natural clay were removed to daylight the Fairburn and Parahiku reserve streams in 2014. It was part of an ambitious scheme to provide both better flood water protections and restore the rivers to a more natural state to support the many migratory fish species in New Zealand. “We have these seasonal species which need these pockets of upstream habitat to live in, and then they go back out to sea and spawn,” says Tom Mansell, stormwater project engineer at Auckland council.[viii]

More recently in the US, $19m was invested to daylight the Saw Mill river in downtown Yonkers, New York. The aim was to regenerate the area and bring back habitat for a range of species including muskrats and snapping turtles.[ix]

Pilot Project for Daylighting La Bievre

Today, the Bievre forms a rainwater system, becoming an alternative means of transportation for wastewater when the sewers are out of action.

Figure 3 By Meg Stewart [CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licesnes/by-sa/2.0)] via Wikimedia Commons

Studies in the 2000s were undertake to identify opportunities to daylight portions of the Bievre.

In 2002, the Communaut d’agglomeration du Val de Bievre (Val de Bievre Combined District Council) carried out a pilot project in the Parc des Paris in Fresnes, a three-hectare area that remained undeveloped. Retaining the former riverbed, a meandering stretch of water was created to encourage the development of aquatic life. Aquatic and semi-aquatic species were introduced in several areas. At the same time, over twenty direct wastewater connections to the Bievre were eliminated.[x]

The resulting enriched biodiversity — from ducks and other species of birds, to fish, amphibians and several aquatic insect species — has been very encouraging. Given the small stretch of daylighting, the ecosystem recovery is limited. Although improved, the water quality remains mediocre, however local residents can now enjoy the newly rediscovered riverside.

How can Earth Law Help

Through this initiative and others, Earth Law Center intends to lay the groundwork for a significant shift in how the law addresses questions of natural resources and environmental integrity. Changes that recognize the inherent rights of species and ecosystems will create more effective and durable mechanisms for protecting the natural world.

Beginning with one river and extending locally creates both community commitment to the environment and governmental protections that span jurisdictions and support a cleaner and healthier environment.

Victories at the local level also build interest and a sense of momentum about our work. As time goes by and more local governments grant rights to local ecosystems, the idea gains political credibility and a groundswell of support that can translate into motion at regional and national levels.

Victories everywhere help build international norms, and the political will for collective solutions to global problems. Personhood for rivers has already been recognized in New Zealand, India, and Colombia. Nature’s inherent rights are recognized in the countries of Bolivia and Ecuador as well as Mexico City and over 30 municipalities in the US.

Now, imagine how it would be if La Bievre had rights. What would be different if it could stand up for its legal rights in a court of law? Rights would include the right to flow; the right to perform essential functions within its ecosystem; the right to be free from pollution; the right to feed and be fed by sustainable aquifers; the right to native biodiversity; and the right to restoration.[xi]

If La Bievre had full legal rights, then any unsustainable exploitation that would impair those rights could be challenged. The river itself would have standing in a court of law. With recognition of its rights in the courts, the river would be considered a legal entity, with the ability to defend those rights. In practice, humans would have to stand in a court of law to enforce such rights on behalf of the river, acting as legal guardians – a model that is already familiar to lawyers who represent children, some disabled persons, and so forth. This model would in turn empower local communities, environmental groups, and others seeking to support the rights of La Bievre.

Take Action Today to Help Restore La Bievre

Act today and join the growing global movement of Earth Law by:

• Staying informed of Earth Law Center and also Notre Affaire à Tous

• Volunteering with ELC or join a work group

• Sign the petition here

• Supporting ELC and Notre Affaire à Tous

• Contact ELC if you want to work on your own river rights campaign

More about Notre Affaire à Tous

Anchored in the struggle for the preservation of nature, the association works to establish climate justice. Its actions must be able to cope with climate change, nuclear disaster, disappearance of resources, etc. To achieve our goals, we chose to act in the legal field, which allows to influence lifestyles and government. The main objective of Our affair for all is to enforce and improve the existing law , especially that of the environment. We thus seek to establish, through case law and citizen mobilization, an effective and objective responsibility of the human being vis-à-vis nature.

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[i] http://www.messynessychic.com/2013/12/09/hunting-the-lost-river-of-paris/

[ii] https://restorerivers.eu/wiki/index.php?title=Case_study%3AReopening_of_a_section_of_the_River_Bi%C3%A8vre_in_an_urban_environment

[iii] http://www.messynessychic.com/2013/12/09/hunting-the-lost-river-of-paris/

[iv] https://freshwaterblog.net/2014/07/08/daylighting-urban-rivers/

[v] https://freshwaterblog.net/2014/07/08/daylighting-urban-rivers/

[vi] https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2017/aug/29/river-runs-global-movement-daylight-urban-rivers

[vii] https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2017/aug/29/river-runs-global-movement-daylight-urban-rivers

[viii] https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2017/aug/29/river-runs-global-movement-daylight-urban-rivers

[ix] https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2017/aug/29/river-runs-global-movement-daylight-urban-rivers

[x] http://www.onema.fr/EN/EV/publication/rex_r9_bievre_vbatGB.pdf

[xi] Universal Declaration of River Rights at https://www.earthlawcenter.org/river-rights/

Rights for Seneca Lake

Rochester, NY [Public domain], from Wikimedia Commons

By Grant Wilson and Darlene Lee

What if the Seneca Lake in the Finger Lakes region of New York State could gain rights recognition? With rivers gaining legal rights throughout the world, legal rights for lakes may become the next great rights-based movement.

The Beautiful Seneca Lake

Hare11062 [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], from Wikimedia Commons

Seneca Lake is the largest of the Finger Lakes and the deepest lake located entirely within New York.[i] Because the lakes are long, narrow, and north-south, much like fingers when seen from the above, mapmakers named them “Finger Lakes.”

The Finger Lakes are known both for their beauty and some of the local industries that thrive in its unique microclimate, including winemakers and farmers. Seneca Lake, the second longest of the Finger Lakes, provides drinking water for over 100,000 people.

Seneca Lake is about two million years old, when glaciers up to two miles wide carved out the lake through a series of massive advances and retreats.[ii] Originally, it was part of a group of north-flowing rivers, but eventually formed into a standalone lake.

Seneca Lake supports diverse aquatic species. This include coldwater fish such as trout and Atlantic salmon in the deeper waters and smallmouth bass and yellow perch in the shallower waters.

Seneca Lake has a typical aquatic population for large deep lakes in the northeast, with coldwater fish such as lake trout and Atlantic salmon inhabiting the deeper waters, and warmwater fish such as smallmouth bass and yellow perch inhabiting the shallower areas.[iii]

Senecas and the Six Nation Confederacy

The six indigenous nations of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy lived in the region for thousands of years being displaced by European settlers. According to the date provided by an oral tradition, the Seneca joined the Iroquois (Haudenosaunee) in 1142 AD.[iv]

The Great Law of Peace represents one of the earliest examples of formal democratic governance and thought to be an inspiration for the American Constitution. It is the oldest governmental institution still maintaining its original form in North America.[v] The five founding nations were the Mohawk, the Oneida, the Onondaga, the Cayuga and the Seneca. The “Six Nations” formed in 1722 after the Tuscarora joined the confederation.

Seneca Lake takes it name from the Seneca people of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, who lived in villages along the lake’s shores. Haudenosaunee means “people of the Long House.”[vi] Today the Seneca Nation has three reservations two hours’ drive from Seneca Lake[vii] with over 45,000 enrolled Haudenosaunee lived in Canada, and about 80,000 in the United States. [viii]

The Seneca Nation describes itself as the “Keeper of the Western Door.” It is the westernmost of the six nations. Seneca also refer to themselves as O-non-dowa-gah, (pronounced: Oh-n'own-dough-wahgah) or "Great Hill People." Today, they have a population of over 8,000 enrolled members.[ix]

Four decades of pollution of Seneca Lake revealed in 2016

Seneca Lake suffers from numerous threats and ongoing sources of pollution. As one example, documents released in 2016 by the environmental advocacy group Toxic Targeting highlighted the extent of Seneca Lake pollution.[x] The document revealed that a salt mine had been discharging chloride, brine, and hydrologic oil into the lake without permission.[xi]

To give another example, a 2017 report showed an increase in phosphorus levels and bacterial contaminants in streams that flow into Seneca Lake. Of those give streams tested, five had phosphorous and/or bacteria levels beyond the limits set by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation’s (DEC), as revealed in the study by the Seneca Lake Pure Waters Association (SLPWA) and the Community Science Institute (CSI).

These increased levels of phosphorous caused harmful algae blooms in the lake, which contaminate water and pose health risks to humans when inhaled or coming into contact with our skin. They can also cause eutrophication of the lake, killing aquatic species. The DEC’s Chief of Lakes Monitoring and Assessment Scott Kishbaugh described the dangers of algae blooms: “Lake residents, visitors and pets should avoid contact with any surface scums or heavily discolored water, and they should seek medical assistance and contact the local health department if they experience any symptoms from blue green algae exposure (nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, skin or throat irritation, allergy reactions or breathing difficulties.”[xii]

Plan to create central gas storage hub at Seneca Lake defeated

A significant threat to Lake Seneca arose from the planned construction of a methane gas storage tank right next to the Lake. Federal regulators had approved its construction despite warnings from experts on geological risk. [xiii] Wine, tourism, and environmental groups, amongst others, teamed up to stop this dangerous project.

The storage area was to be located near a few dozen salt caverns on Seneca Lake’s western side, posing a threat to the lake’s sensitive ecosystems. The storage would also be only three miles north of the village of Watkins Glen, posing a risk to local residents.[xiv]

In the face of local community activism, Arlington Storage Company, a subsidiary of Crestwood Midstream, finally abandoned its plan to expand natural gas storage in unlined salt caverns on the west shore of Seneca Lake in Schuyler County after a six-year battle with local activists.

In July 2018, Basil Seggos, New York state's environmental conservation commissioner denied Crestwood Midstream Partners' nine-year push for a permit, writing that "The project before me involves significant adverse unmitigated impacts with respect to local and regional community character in this area of New York State."[xv]

“This is a victory for the people of the region who have fought for years to protect Seneca Lake and the Finger Lakes from industrialized gas storage,” said Yvonne Taylor, vice president of Gas Free Seneca. Deborah Goldberg, an attorney with Earthjustice, has been representing Gas Free Seneca in its fight.

How Earth Law could help restore Seneca Lake

Vlad Podvorny (Seneca Lake) [CC BY 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Pollution in Seneca Lake presents a severe public health hazard and a danger to wildlife. Securing legal recognition for Seneca Lake’s rights could benefit humans and nonhumans alike.

Seneca Lake faces threats from bacteria, algae, chemical spills and excessive salinity. Local environmentalists have done significant work over the last few years to raise awareness of the lake’s problems and look for solutions.

However, these challenges will continue so long as we operate in the same flawed paradigm of treating nature – including our lakes – as property to be exploited for profit. This flawed mindset, deeply embedded in our legal and economic systems, fails to treat nature as the life-giving and rights-bearing entity that it is.

Legal recognition of Seneca Lake’s rights to thrive, evolve, and perform its natural functions would address the pollution issue by strengthening existing protections and putting the burden of proof on would-be-polluters. And rather than being able to degrade Seneca Lake for short-term economic interests, its rights to health would be guaranteed. These rights would be enforced by legal guardians who would represent the lake in the courts. Finally, anyone who harms Seneca Lake would have to make the reparations necessary to return the lake to health.

What is Earth Law and how could it help Seneca Lake?

ELC is laying the groundwork for a significant shift in how the law addresses questions of natural protections and environmental integrity. Changes that recognize the inherent rights of species and ecosystems will create more effective and durable mechanisms for protecting the natural world.

Beginning with one lake or river and extending locally creates both community commitment to the environment and governmental protections that span jurisdictions and support a cleaner and healthier environment. Victories at the local level also build interest and a sense of momentum about our work – as time goes by and more local governments grant rights to local ecosystems, the idea gains in political credibility and a groundswell of support that can translate into motion at the state and ultimately federal levels.

Work in the U.S. as well as other countries does not happen in isolation: victories anywhere help build international norms, and the political will for collective solutions to global problems. Four rivers now enjoy rights recognition: the Whanganui River in New Zealand, the Atrato River in Colombia, the Villacabamba River in Ecuador and now the Amazon in Colombia.

Which four lakes will be the first to have legal rights? It could be one of the Finger Lakes. Or, if you are interested in giving legal rights to a lake that you work to protect, please get in touch with Earth Law Center to help.

Possible Earth Law approaches for Seneca Lake

To give readers an idea of what a rights of lakes campaign might look like, here are a few options building towards a rights-based paradigm for Seneca Lake:

1. A binding law establishing rights for Lake Seneca

2. A binding law establishing rights for all of the Finger Lakes

3. Either of the above but a non-binding resolution

4. In addition to any of the above, working with local tribes to establish rights for the Finger Lakes through their governance.

5. Seeking to allocate water rights to be held by rivers themselves within the above watersheds.

Want to take action?

• Sign up for the ELC monthly newsletter to stay informed

• Join us and volunteer

• Support us and donate

• Or start a new initiative

A note on nomenclature

The Haudenosaunee Confederacy is also known as the Six Nations. The name “Six Nations” was used by English-speaking European settlers. French speakers knew the Haudenosaunee as the “Iroquois.” Haudenosaunee is the name preferred by the people themselves, and so is the best name to use.[xvi]

On their website the Seneca Nation advises that in all cases, native people prefer to be described using the name of their nation or tribe. This is better than lumping them all together under a label such as Native American or American Indian.

Preferences about use of the words "tribe" and "tribal" vary among indigenous people across the United States. The Seneca Nation, for instance, prefers nation; rather than tribe (ie: the Seneca Nation Council; not the Seneca Nation Tribal Council.)[xvii]

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[i] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seneca_Lake_(New_York)

[ii] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seneca_Lake_(New_York)

[iii] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seneca_Lake_(New_York)

[iv] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seneca_people

[v] http://nmai.si.edu/sites/1/files/pdf/education/HaudenosauneeGuide.pdf

[vi] http://www.haudenosauneeconfederacy.com/aboutus.html

[vii] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seneca_Nation_of_Indians

[viii] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iroquois

[ix] https://sni.org/

[x] http://www.stargazette.com/story/opinion/2016/12/20/burden-proof-crestwood/95651566/

[xi] http://spectrumlocalnews.com/nys/binghamton/news/2016/11/19/new-documents-reveal-seneca-lake-pollution

[xii] https://www.ithaca.com/news/streams-feeding-pollutants-into-seneca-lake/article_9215faac-8a4e-11e5-9228-d7f918ca42bb.html

[xiii] https://www.ecowatch.com/ferc-approves-methane-storage-project-in-finger-lakes-region-of-new-yo-1881960731.html

[xiv] https://www.ecowatch.com/ferc-approves-methane-storage-project-in-finger-lakes-region-of-new-yo-1881960731.html

[xv] https://www.pressconnects.com/story/news/2018/07/12/dec-rejects-plan-crestwood-propane-storage-facility-seneca-lake/779605002/

[xvi] https://www.britannica.com/topic/Iroquois-Confederacy

[xvii] https://sni.org/faq/

Seeds of Hope for Earth Law in the Philippines

By WolfmanSF [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], from Wikimedia Commons

By Margarita N. Lavides and Darlene May Lee 

While the Philippines needs to strengthen its law enforcement capacity, it will also benefit from building on its rich well-crafted environmental policies with a new model of environmental governance focused on well-being and guided by principles of sustainability, ecosystem health, precaution, interconnectedness and inclusiveness. Read on to find out more about how Earth Law Center and Philippines Earth Justice Center partner to advance the Rights of Nature movement, specifically how to incorporate the Earth Law Framework for Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) into the country’s National System of MPAs.

The Philippines is one of 18 mega-biodiverse countries of the world, containing two-thirds of the earth’s biodiversity and between 70% and 80% of the world’s plant and animal species. The Philippines ranks fifth in the number of plant species and maintains 5% of the world’s flora. Species endemism is very high, covering at least 25 genera of plants and 49% of terrestrial wildlife, while the country ranks fourth in bird endemism and considered to host the most number of marine species in the world. The Philippines is also one of the world’s biodiversity hotspots with at least 700 threatened species, thus making it one of the top global conservation areas.[1][2]

Philippines ranks 7 globally for coastal governance laws

Infographic of Biodiversity in the Philippines (Source: Philippine Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan, PBSAP 2015-2028)

The Coastal Governance Index [3] ranks the Philippines 7th out of twenty maritime countries across the globe for its good track record of well-crafted environmental laws. While some current proponents of constitutional change include proposed environmental rights in its bill of rights, the current Philippine Constitution promotes a right to a healthy environment.

The 1987 Philippine Constitution [4] provides that the State shall protect the nation’s marine wealth in its archipelagic waters, territorial sea, and exclusive economic zone, and reserve its use and enjoyment exclusively to Filipino citizens. The same Constitution provides that the State shall protect and advance the right of the people to a balanced and healthful ecology in accord with the rhythm and harmony of nature. It also provides for the protection of the preferential rights of subsistence fishers and local communities in the use of inland and offshore fishing resources and provides for support in the conduct of their livelihoods.

 With regard to integrated coastal management, 75 related major laws/policies have been enacted and national programs implemented (from 1800s to 2018). These include the landmark legislations on local government code; a fisheries code; an act on national protected areas system; a national biodiversity strategy and action plan and a proclamation on the establishment of Benham Rise Marine Reserve. These laws and policies, among other outcomes, allowed for local government and communities to better manage their natural resources, especially in coastal areas; increased the areas for critical habitat and protected areas; provided the roadmap for biodiversity protection and management and established the largest and biodiversity-rich marine protected area.[5] Beyond the work of Filipino legislators, these environmental laws materialized due to many outstanding environmental law practitioners and an active civil society organizations.

Activists protecting the natural environment in the Philippines

By Shubert Ciencia (Flickr: Manila Bay) [CC BY 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

In 1993, Atty. Antonio Oposa Jr. represented 43 Filipino children who initiated an action against the Philippine Government for the misappropriation of the country’s forest resources. Despite being dismissed at trial court, Oposa took it to the Supreme Court who upheld the legal standing and the right of the children to initiate the action on behalf of generations yet unborn - establishing the “Oposa Doctrine” as it is known now in Philippines and global jurisprudence. Oposa also waged a ten-year legal battle against eleven government agencies to clean up Manila Bay, ultimately winning a decision from the Supreme Court who ordered the offending agencies to clean up Manila Bay.[6]

Attys. Gloria Ramos and Rose Liza Eisma-Osorio defended the rights of marine mammals to a healthful ecology in Tanon Strait preventing a mining company from oil exploration in the Strait in a precedent setting Supreme Court decision in 2015.[7] They are currently exploring a specific Earth Law initiative with Earth Law Center which seeks to incorporate the principles of the Framework for Ocean Rights.

Many lower court cases can bring additional optimism in this era of pessimism. Residents of Bantayan Island, Cebu sued and won to protect their coastal areas from tourism business that violates environmental laws. Atty. Gloria Ramos gained (and later extended) a Temporary Environmental Protection Order (TEPO) to stop a local coal power plant from transporting toxic coal combustion residuals outside premises. Concerned Citizens of Iligan City and the Center for Alternative Legal Forum and Injustice Inc jointly filed for and won a TEPO to prevent illegal logging. While environmental lawyers and activists continue to fight against environmental violations, other members of civil society organizations also seek to implement innovative solutions towards a more just and sustainable environment and society.[8]

Pioneering environmental NGO, Haribon Foundation, founded in 1972, has sparked the environmental movement through its research and advocacy work for Critically-Endangered Philippine Eagle which through the years expanded the work into national protected areas system, threatened species and community-based and local government led conservation and resource management. In 1999, it organized a national network of fisher-MPA managers called Pamana Ka Sa Pilipinas from 122-MPA-member sites across the country which became an important national player in advancing the cause of small scale fisheries and marine conservation.[9]

International NGOs like Oceana-Philippines while working for fisheries reform, was one of the leading catalysts in the presidential proclamation of Philippine Rise (Benham Rise) into a largest marine reserve in the country.[10] A growing number of universities now engage with government and NGOs towards building a more sustainable environment and development. University of the Philippines and other leading universities are active not only in its knowledge generation but leveraging impact by influencing environmental policy and advocacy. The church is also active in its campaign for a more just and sustainable communities. It is quite common for Catholic priests and lay persons to lead  environmental campaigns and advocacy against coal mining and other environmental violations across the country.

Current protections remain insufficient for ecosystem and species health

Yet despite all this activity, the country’s natural ecosystems and species continue to suffer. In a country level study, 59 fish names were identified to be at risk of local extinction, with large and slow-growing reef fishes such as Giant Grouper, Bumphead Parrotfish, Humphead Wrasse, declining as much as 88% in catch since the 1950s due to overfishing and vicious cycle of poverty.[11] This is aggravated by impacts of climate change and habitat degradation.

In a national survey of coral reefs, it was reported that there is a marked decline in hard coral cover across the country since the 1970s, with loss of reefs in excellent condition and more than 90% of the reefs in poor condition.[12]  No wonder a typical old Filipino fisher, during our interviews with them across the country would say: The present fishers’ catch for one month is nothing compared to our fish catch for just one week.

Land ecosystems suffer equally. Dr. Mundita Lim, former Director of Philippine Biodiversity Management Bureau and currently Executive Director of ASEAN Center for Biodiversity laments, “In the Philippines, we have lost almost 93 percent of our original forest cover since the 1900’s. In 2008, 58 out of the 206 then known mammal species native to the Philippines were included in the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red Data List of Threatened Species.[13] This is a number that is significantly large, considering that more than half of our native mammalian species are found only in the country and nowhere else in the world.”[14]

Coupled with the alarming rate of biodiversity loss is the continued discoveries of new species which all the more fortify the position for a more strengthened environmental governance and enforcement. From 2005 to 2012, there were 151 new species of birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians and plants discovered. In Luzon alone, there were 300 new species discovered in 2011 by California Academy of Sciences.[14]

While the national government of the Philippines has been addressing climate change and environmental challenges, inconsistencies abound such as the continued government’s permission to mine coal despite local governments’ and communities’ opposition in many cases. Continued logging in natural forests and rampant overexploitation of wildlife continue to threaten native ecosystems and species while enforcement of environmental protection laws remains weak. So despite the successful establishment of a host of environmental protection laws, the ecosystems and species of the Philippines remains imperiled. 

Rights of Nature (RoN) and Integrated Coastal Management(ICM): A Symbiosis

Earth Law or earth jurisprudence, including Rights of Nature, could help strengthen and evolve the current legal protections of nature in the Philippines. Earth Law is an ethical framework that recognizes nature’s right to exist, thrive and evolve - enabling nature to defend these rights in court, just like corporations can. Earth Law has theoretical origins in 1970s but since 2006 when the first Rights of Nature legislation was implemented in the US has been gaining strength through constitutional provisions or national law (Ecuador, Bolivia) and local ordinances (New Zealand, India, Mexico and in three dozen US cities and municipalities).

Since 2003, a series of government laws and policies establishing ICM as a national strategy to ensure sustainable development of the country’s coastal and marine environment and resources and including guidelines for its implementation, has been issued. In 2016, a Senate Bill to strengthen the adoption of ICM as a national coastal resource management strategy has been filed.[5]

ICM-related policy issuances emphasized that ICM covers all coastal and marine areas, addressing the inter-linkages among associated watersheds, estuaries and wetlands and coastal seas by all relevant national and local agencies5. This means that the management approach should encompass forest, river and marine areas due to their interconnectedness. This can easily be seen in impacts of land- and sea-based human activities such as agriculture, deforestation and overfishing.[15, 16, 17] Because of ICM’s integrative characteristic consistent with the principles of RoN, ICM is used here to show common principles applied to both RoN and ICM.

 According to government-issuances on ICM, among the identified elements of ICM programmes across socio-ecological systems, are the establishment and management of marine protected areas and its networks. Thus MPA and MPA network programmes sit well within ICM programmes and both have principles consistent with RoN.

While many will argue that legislating for RoN may not yet be timely for the Philippines due to its current political climate, poverty-related social and environmental problems and the country’s low score in enforcing the law [2]; but it cannot be denied that the country is also laden with seeds of hope that can germinate into an Earth Law regime and bearing fruits from its future Rights of Nature legislations and implementation.

While we embark on this process with realistic optimism, environmental lawyers and activists and other civil society organizations are enjoined to continue to optimize the use of existing environmental rights constitutional provisions and other related environmental laws and policies towards a just and sustainable Philippines.

How Can You Help Crystallize an Earth Law Regime in the Philippines? 

1. Stay informed by signing up for ELC’s monthly newsletter

2. Donate to the cause

3. Volunteer for Earth Law initiative of ELC and Philippine Earth Justice Center, Inc

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1. https://www.cbd.int/countries/profile/default.shtml?country=ph

2. Carpenter and Springer (2005) The center of the center of marine shorefish biodiversity: the Philippine Islands. EnviBio Fish, 72: 467-480.

3. EIUL Economist Intelligence Unit Ltd. (2015) Coastal Governance Index

4. Philippine Constitution (1987)

5. Forest Foundation (2018) ICM and ICM Policies in the Philippines Prepared by Dr. MNLavides

6. https://www.films.com/ecTitleDetail.aspx?TitleID=76342

7. Bender & Lee (2018) Philippines Establishes Guardians of Marine Mammals Earth Law Center www.earthlaw.com

8. Lagura-Yap et al. (Undated) Environmental Justice in Philippine Courts

9. http://www.haribon.org.ph/index.php/haribon-foundation/history

10. https://ph.oceana.org/

11. Lavides MN et al.  (2016) Patterns of coral reef finfish species disappearances inferred from fishers’ knowledge in global epicentre of marine shorefish diversity. PLoS One, 11(5): e0155752. Doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0155752

12. Licuanan AM et al. (2017) Initial findings of the national assessments of Philippine coral reefs. Philippine Journal of Science, 146(2): 177-185.

13. IUCN (2008) Red Data List of Threatened Species

14. Philippine Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (PBSAP) 2015-2028

15. Makino A et al. (2013) Integrated planning for land-sea ecosystem connectivity to protect coral reefs. Biological Conservation, 165: 35-42

16. Reed et al. (2017) Have integrated landscape approaches reconciled societal &environmental issues in the tropics? Land Use Policy 63: 481-492.

17. Oleson KLL et al. (2017) Upstream solutions to coral reef conservation: The pay-off of smart and cooperative decision making. Journal of Environmental Management, 191: 8-18.

Rights for the Boulder Creek Watershed

Carol Jacobs-Carre @ Creative Commons

By Corey Todd and Earth Law Center team

Earth Law Center has partnered with Boulder Rights of Nature (BRON) and other local partners to establish the Boulder Creek Watershed as a legal entity possessing rights. Although ecologically and culturally important to the region, Boulder Creek and its watershed face many water quality and flow threats.

To address these challenges, a local rights of nature law would permanently protect the Boulder Creek Watershed by establishing its fundamental rights, including a legal right to flow, to be free from pollution, to restoration, and others. It would also appoint legal guardians to enforce these rights. With Boulder’s long history of cutting-edge environmental protections, this new legal paradigm could serve as a model for other U.S. communities.

What is a Watershed and Why is it Important?

A watershed is a geographic area in which water flows across the land and drains into a common outlet – such as a stream, river, lake, or ocean. Its area is defined by the continuous ridgelines that form its boundaries.[i]  If you place a drop of water anywhere within a watershed, it will follow gravity downhill towards the same main body of water. A watershed includes all waterways, groundwater, land, and ecosystems therein.

Protecting watersheds is important because they provide water for ecosystem and human needs. Clean, bountiful water with natural flow regimes is essential to thriving plant and animal communities.[ii]  And humans rely upon healthy watersheds for drinking water, agriculture, recreation, and other uses. Without a healthy watershed, all of its inhabitants suffer.

About the Boulder Creek Watershed

The Boulder Creek Watershed is located in Colorado’s Front Range and is approximately 1,447 square miles in size. The watershed encompasses all of the land that drains into Boulder Creek.[iii] In addition to the Town of Boulder, which shares the Creek’s namesake, the other towns located in the watershed are Nederland, Louisville, Lafayette, Erie, Superior, and portions of Arvada, Broomfield, and Frederick .[iv]

Creeks and streams in the Boulder Creek Watershed generally flow from the west (where the Rocky Mountains are located) to the east. Boulder Creek itself flows northeast into Weld County, where it joins St. Vrain Creek and later confluences with the Platt River.[v] The Platt is a tributary of the Mississippi River, which empties into the Gulf of Mexico.[vi]

Map source: http://czo.colorado.edu/html/sites.shtml

Boulder Creek Watershed Biological and Ecological Importance

The Boulder Creek Watershed provides important habitat to numerous native fish species. These include creek chub, fathead minnows, green sunfish, longnose dace, longnose suckers and white suckers. However, many non-native species have also become established within the Boulder Creek Watershed, including a large population of brown trout.

A broad range of other species live in the Boulder Creek Watershed, as well. Local mammal species include mule deer, coyotes, red foxes, yellow-bellied marmots, bobcats, and others. Boulder has a thriving bird population, as well, including the great horned owl and black-billed magpie, as well as warblers, tanagers, and towhees in the summertime. These are only a few examples this region’s incredibly diverse wildlife.

For local communities, Boulder Creek and its tributaries are used for drinking water, irrigation, electricity generation, and recreation.[vii] As to the latter, hundreds of locals descend upon the Creek in July for “Tube To Work Day” – which is just one example of the community’s close connection to its waterways. Local residents frequently fish, hike, swim, and otherwise enjoy Boulder Creek and other local waters.

By kevin [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], from Wikimedia Commons

What Threats Does the Boulder Creek Watershed Face?

As the population has grown in the Boulder Creek Watershed, potential water-quality effects from urbanization have increased.[viii] Conversion of forest and agricultural land to urban land use has resulted in an increased impervious surface area, which causes rain and melted snow to travel quickly to streams as surface-water runoff, carrying sediment and accumulated contaminants.[ix] Construction also contributes sediment to streams if the runoff is not controlled.[x]

Increased population also means more wastewater, which contributes nutrients and organic contaminants to streams.[xi] Impacts of wastewater in the Boulder Creek Watershed include:

• Increased algae blooms, which take up all the oxygen in the water leaving none left for other life in the water – called eutrophication.[xii]

• The presence of organic wastewater contaminants, such as pharmaceutical drugs, hormones, and cleaning products, which are generally not regulated. Unfortunately, all of these have been found in Boulder Creek.[xiii]

• Elevated levels of Escherichia coli (E. coli), a fecal indicator bacteria, which are present in portions of both the urban and agricultural areas of the watershed.[xiv]

Other threats to local waterways include low flows, high temperature, channelization, harmful dams, an altered flow regime, siltation, and more. While the Boulder Creek Watershed and its waters may appear pristine to visitors, they face many challenges – and these could become even worse as the population continues to grow.

Background on Earth Law: What is it and Why is it Desirable?

Earth Law, including Rights of Nature, is an ethical framework that recognizes nature’s right to exist, thrive and evolve – enabling nature to defend these rights in court, just like humans and corporations can. Earth Law also recognizes that humans and nature are co-members of a larger Earth Community, whose overarching well-being must be paramount.

The Rights of Nature movement embodies the principle that natural communities and species are not merely property to be owned. Instead, they are living entities with certain inalienable legal rights. These rights are not “given” by humans, but rather are inherent to nature’s existence – just as humans possess inherent rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Four rivers now enjoy rights recognition: the Whanganui River in New Zealand, the Atrato River in Colombia, the Villacabamba River in Ecuador and now the Colombian portion of the Amazon. Earth Law Center is firming up half-a-dozen new river initiatives to launch this year.

In support of our campaign to establish rights for all rivers, ELC along with experts worldwide have developed a draft Universal Declaration of River Rights. The Declaration draws from victories for the rights of rivers worldwide, as well as scientific understandings of healthy river systems.

Rights of the Boulder Creek Watershed Campaign

Boulder Rights of Nature (BRON) in partnership with Earth Law Center and other local partners seeks legal rights for the Boulder Creek Watershed through a new local law. This would make it the first watershed in the United States to be recognized as a living entity possessing legal rights.

The fundamental rights that would be possessed by the Boulder Creek Watershed and all waters therein would include, at minimum:

(1) The right to flow,

(2) The right to perform essential functions within its ecosystem,

(3) The right to be free from pollution,

(4) The right to feed and be fed by sustainable aquifers,

(5) The right to native biodiversity, and

(6) The right to restoration.[xv]

Through this new legal paradigm, the Boulder Creek Watershed could be restored to health and permanently protected as a right, rather than its protection being dependent on the political and economic tides. Giving the watershed legal rights would not only benefit local ecosystems, but also humans that rely upon and enjoy Boulder Creek and its watershed.

The law would also call for the appointment of one or more legal guardians of the Boulder Creek Watershed to oversee its rights and interests. These legal guardians would act on the watershed’s behalf in legal proceedings and ensure that it is fairly represented in the local democratic process.

Boulder County and its residents understand the importance of protecting nature. After all, it has protected some 45,000 acres of open space. And with some 151 public trails, the local community has a very strong connection to its natural splendor.

So will Boulder take the next step in its environmental protections by recognizing the rights of the Boulder Creek Watershed?  If so, Boulder could become a model for other communities that wish to create new laws that protect nature as a partner on our shared planet, not as mere property. We look forward to seeing the benefits of this emerging paradigm in Boulder and across the world.

Join the Global movement

• Stay informed of Earth Law Center

• Volunteer with ELC

• Support ELC

• Contact ELC if you want to work on your own river rights campaign

More on Earth Law Center

Earth Law Center works to transform the law to recognize, honor, and protect nature’s inherent rights to exist, thrive and evolve.

We do this by building a force of advocates for nature's rights at local and international levels. We partner with local organizations create new laws that recognize rights of rivers, oceans, coastal and land ecosystems. www.earthlawcenter.org

More on Boulder Rights of Nature

Boulder Creek Rights of Nature is a leading advocate for nature’s rights in Boulder County. While successfully advocating for stronger environmental policies in Boulder County, BRON also launched a successful documentary series and host regular talks on local rights of nature issues. Earth Law Center is a member of BRON.

Boulder Rights of Nature is working to get rights of nature established as law in one or more jurisdictions in Boulder County and elsewhere.[xvi] In this work, they are aligned with hundreds of community organizations across the country. (To see a draft of their ordinance, click here.) For example, BRON is researching legal frameworks to protect Boulder Creek and Coal Creek with their naturally occurring species.

In addition to BRON’s noble cause of establishing Rights of Nature within the Boulder Creek Watershed and establishing a precedent for water rights around the country, they are active members of the Boulder community. For Example, BRON has established a film series entitled “Plights of Grassland Birds – Boulder Rights of Nature Film Series.”[xvii] The PLIGHT of GRASSLAND BIRDS follows the migratory path of these birds across the Americas to explore why these species are declining faster than any other group of birds, and what’s being done to reverse the trend.[xviii] Additionally, BRON routinely holds public speaking events that are open to the public. For a list of upcoming events, signing up to action alerts and event notifications, and additional information on BRON, visit http://boulderrightsofnature.org/

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[i] Watershed Management.” Water Quality Monitoring Efforts, dep.wv.gov/WWE/watershed/Pages/watershed_management.aspx.

[ii] “Watersheds 101.” The Nature Conservancy, May 2018, www.nature.org/ourinitiatives/regions/northamerica/unitedstates/indiana/journeywithnature/watersheds-101.xml.

[iii] Id

[iv] Id

[v] Id

[vi] Id

[vii] Id at 30

[viii] Id at 29

[ix] Id

[x] Id

[xi] Id

[xii] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4997450/

[xiii] Id

[xiv] https://www.natureindex.com/institution-outputs/united-states-of-america-usa/usgc-water-quality-of-the-boulder-creek-watershed-colorado/58d49127140ba00a3f8b456a

[xv] https://www.earthlawcenter.org/blog-entries/2017/9/zbqocjwq4cd3htclznxw1gmxf291ic

[xvi] “Boulder Rights of Nature - Establishing Legal Rights for Naturally Functioning Ecosystems and Native Species.” Boulder Rights of Nature, 2018, boulderrightsofnature.org/.

[xvii] “Grassland Birds – Boulder Rights of Nature Film Series.” Boulder Dot Earth, “Watersheds 101.” The Nature Conservancy, May 2018, www.nature.org/ourinitiatives/regions/northamerica/unitedstates/indiana/journeywithnature/watersheds-101.xml.

[xviii] Id

Rights for the Southern Resident Killer Whales

Source: NOAA (http://www.afsc.noaa.gov/Quarterly/amj2005/divrptsNMML3.html)

By Michelle Bender and Darlene Lee

Earth Law Center is partnering with Legal Rights for the Salish Sea (Gig Harbor community group), the Nonhuman Rights Project and PETA to seek rights recognition for the endangered Southern Resident Killer Whale population and the Salish Sea.

A Brief Primer on Orcas

Most of us easily recognize the distinctive black and white coloring of Orca Whales. But did you know that they are the largest member of the 35 species in the oceanic dolphin family, which first appeared about 11 million years ago?[i] Considering Homo Sapiens have been on Earth just 200,000 years[ii], perhaps our perspective on these highly intelligent and social fellow Earthlings needs to evolve.
"Whales represent the most spectacularly successful invasion of oceans by a mammalian lineage," said Michael Alfaro, UCLA assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology. "They are often at the top of the food chain and are major players in whatever ecosystem they are in. They are the biggest animals that have ever lived. Cetaceans (which include whales, as well as dolphins and porpoises) are the mammals that can go to the deepest depths in the oceans.[iii]

Unlike other whales who have shrunk in size over time, Orcas have become larger over the last 10 million years. Also unlike other whales, they eat mammals, including other whales. "If we look at rates of body-size evolution throughout the whale family tree, the rate of body-size evolution in the killer whale is the fastest," Graham Slater, a National Science Foundation–funded UCLA postdoctoral scholar in Alfaro's laboratory said.[iv]

Contrary to their reputation in popular culture and the much-publicized attacks by captive Orcas, no recorded case of a free-ranging orca ever harming a human exists. Even when orca mothers are violently pushed away with sharp poles so their young can be wrestled into nets and loaded onto trucks, they have never attacked a human being.[v]

Types of Orca Clans

The IUCN reported in 2008, "The taxonomy of this genus is clearly in need of review, and it is likely that O. orca will be split into a number of different species or at least subspecies over the next few years." The three types include[vi]:

• Resident: Feeding on fish and squid, these Orcas live in complex and cohesive family groups called pods. They visit the same areas consistently. British Columbia and Washington resident populations are amongst the most intensively studied marine mammals anywhere in the world. Transients and residents live in the same areas, but avoid each other.

Source: NOAA

• Transient: The diets of these whales consist almost exclusively of marine mammals. Transients generally travel in small groups, usually of two to six animals, and have less persistent family bonds than residents. Transients vocalize in less variable and less complex dialects. Transients roam widely along the coast. Transients are also referred to as Bigg's killer whale in honor of cetologist Michael Bigg.

• Offshore: These orcas travel far from shore and feed primarily on schooling fish and may also eat mammals and sharks. Offshores typically congregate in groups of 20–75, with occasional sightings of larger groups of up to 200. Little is known about their habits, but they are genetically distinct from residents and transients. Offshores appear to be smaller than the others.[vii]

Orcas have a brain part that humans don’t

https://blog.seattlepi.com/candacewhiting/2009/07/13/orca-brains-are-large-and-complex/ Creative Commons

Not only do they have their well-documented senses of humor and empathy and mischievousness, Orcas possess a paralimbic cleft which "may enable some brain function we can't even envision because we lack it," David Neiwert writes in Of Orcas and Men, his breathtaking survey of orca science, folklore, and mystery. "Scientists who examine their brains are often astonished at just how heavily folded these brains are."

The more wrinkles and folds a brain has, the more data it can handle and the faster it can process information. This dense folding is called gyrification, and orcas have "the most gyrified brain on the planet." Their gyrencephaly index is 5.7 compared to human beings' 2.2.

Scientists have also found highly developed parts of the orca brain they believe are associated with emotional learning, long-term memory, self- awareness, and focus.[viii]

More about the Southern Resident Orcas

As of June 2018, only 75 Southern Resident Orcas remain: J pod has 23 members; K pod has 18; and L pod has 34.[ix]

Dr. Michael Bigg, who pioneered field research on orcas in the early 1970's first coined the name. The three Southern resident pods, known as J, K and L pods, usually travel, forage and socialize throughout the inland waters of the Salish Sea (Puget Sound, the San Juan Islands, and Georgia Strait) from late spring through late summer seeking chinook salmon, which provide about 80% of their diet. [x] 

An extended family forms the Southern Resident community. Both male and female offspring remain near their mothers throughout their lives. The average size of a matriline is 5.5 animals. Because females can reach age 90, as many as four generations travel together. [xi]  No other mammal known to science maintains lifetime contact between mothers and offspring of both genders. Unlike all other mammals except humans, orca females may survive up to five decades beyond their reproductive years.[xii]

These matrilineal groups are highly stable. Individuals separate for only a few hours at a time, to mate or forage. Each individual has a unique fin shape, markings and color patterns. When Southern resident pods join together after a separation of a few days or a few months, they often engage in "greeting" behavior. With one exception, a killer whale named Luna, no permanent separation of an individual from a resident matriline has been recorded. [xiii]

Securing Orca Rights

When an individual is removed from his or her home by force, imprisoned, made to work, and forever denied their freedom, it’s called “slavery.” In October 2011, PETA filed a lawsuit against SeaWorld on behalf of five wild-captured orcas seeking a declaration that these five orcas are slaves and subjected to involuntary servitude in violation of the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Joined by three orca experts and two former SeaWorld trainers, PETA’s lawsuit asserts that the conditions under which these orcas live constitute the very definition of slavery.[xiv]

PETA’s briefs cited more than 200 years of U.S. Supreme Court precedent, including such landmark cases as Dred Scott, Brown v. Board of Education, and Loving v. Virginia, to establish that the orcas’ species does not deny them the right to be free under the 13th Amendment and that long-established prejudice does not determine constitutional rights. Harvard law professor and constitutional scholar Laurence H. Tribe said: “People may well look back on this lawsuit and see in it a perceptive glimpse into a future of greater compassion for species other than our own.”[xv] (read the full review article here: http://www.mediapeta.com/peta/PDF/FW-13th-Amendment-Law-Review.pdf).

Blackfish the film captures public attention

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmRv4kIul38

In January 2013, the documentary Blackfish premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, telling the story about Tilikum, a performing killer whale that killed several people while in captivity.[xvi] A little more than three years later (a period marked by sustained activism, multi-platform distribution, and media coverage) SeaWorld officially announced on March 17, 2016 that it will officially end its orca breeding program and end orca shows at all of its theme parks.

By 2015, the stock price of SeaWorld had declined by 84 percent.[xvii] A California state lawmaker proposed legislation in April 2014 that called to ban California aquatic parks from featuring orcas in performances; although the proposed law was unsuccessful, it garnered national media coverage.[xviii]

In January 2017, Seaworld San Diego held its last Orca show, prompted by years of outcry and falling attendance.[xix] Parks in Orlando and San Antonio will end their shows by 2019.

Southern Resident Orca Rights Initiative

Securing rights for the endangered Southern Resident Killer Whale population can help stave off extinction for these highly intelligent and social animals who are critical to the health of the Salish Sea marine ecosystem. Michelle Bender, Ocean Rights Manager, notes, 

“To truly protect Southern Resident killer whales, now and in the long term, we urgently need to recognize and codify their rights. Scientific studies and human experience of these animals have made clear that they are self-aware and autonomous, with complex emotional and social lives—and we humans are the cause of their endangerment. As autonomous beings, Southern Resident killer whales cannot survive, much less thrive, without legislation that protects their habitat as a matter of right and ensures that human activities do not infringe on their bodily liberty and integrity and prevent them from living life as they were meant to: freely in the open ocean, with an ample supply of their natural food source and without pollutants in their bodies. A rights ordinance is, without a doubt, the best way to do this,” notes Courtney Fern, the Nonhuman Rights Project’s Director of Government Relations.

Lawyer Elizabeth M. Dunne, Esq. who focuses on advancing and defending the rights of local communities and ecosystems in partnership with the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund is part of the larger consortium ELC is building to secure rights for the Salish Sea. She notes:

"Our current anthropocentric (human centered) legal system is out of line with our ecological reality. Recognizing that nature has rights harmonizes our legal system with what we know to be true -- humans cannot dominate, and quite literally issue “permits” to destroy (as provided by environmental regulations), our natural and animal communities without severe consequences. With the understanding that non-human inhabitants of the Earth, such as the southern resident orcas, are sentient beings comes the recognition that they, too, have rights. Not as “persons”, but in their own right as living beings with whom we co-exist. Recognizing that the southern resident orcas have enforceable rights in their own right is critical to their continued existence. With only 75 left, it is self-evident that legislation, such as the Endangered Species Act, has largely failed them. Indeed, our entire legal structure has failed them, and us, by perpetuating the delusion that it is only humans (and corporations) who have rights. I hope that we all intuitively know that by killing life on this planet, we are killing ourselves, and that we cannot thrive in a legal structure that fails to pay heed to our interconnectedness. In dire circumstances lies hope for a paradigm shift."

Story Map

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Act today to save the Southern Resident Killer Whales!

• Stay informed

• Volunteer

• Donate

More about the Southern Resident killer whale Coalition Partners

The Nonhuman Rights Project (NHRP) is the only civil rights organization in the United States working through litigation, public policy advocacy, and education to secure legally recognized fundamental rights for nonhuman animals. https://www.nonhumanrights.org/

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is the largest animal rights organization in the world, with more than 6.5 million members and supporters. PETA focuses its attention on the four areas in which the largest numbers of animals suffer the most intensely for the longest periods of time: in the food industry, in the clothing trade, in laboratories, and in the entertainment industry. PETA works through public education, cruelty investigations, research, animal rescue, legislation, special events, celebrity involvement, and protest campaigns. https://www.peta.org

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[i] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killer_whale

[ii] https://www.npr.org/sections/13.7/2012/09/11/160934187/for-how-long-have-we-been-human

[iii] http://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/ucla-biologists-report-how-whales-159231

[iv] http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2010/06/whale-evolution-a-snapshot-of-planet-earth-from-55-million-bc-to-present.html

[v] https://www.orcanetwork.org/Main/index.php?categories_file=Natural%20History%20of%20Orcas%20-%20Part%201

[vi] http://us.whales.org/wdc-in-action/meet-different-types-of-orca

[vii] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killer_whale

[viii] https://www.thestranger.com/books/feature/2015/08/05/22646533/orcas-have-ruled-the-planet-longer-than-we-have-and-theyre-smarter-than-we-know

[ix] https://www.orcanetwork.org/Main/index.php?categories_file=Births%20and%20Deaths

[x] https://www.thestranger.com/books/feature/2015/08/05/22646533/orcas-have-ruled-the-planet-longer-than-we-have-and-theyre-smarter-than-we-know

[xi] https://www.thestranger.com/books/feature/2015/08/05/22646533/orcas-have-ruled-the-planet-longer-than-we-have-and-theyre-smarter-than-we-know

[xii] https://www.thestranger.com/books/feature/2015/08/05/22646533/orcas-have-ruled-the-planet-longer-than-we-have-and-theyre-smarter-than-we-know

[xiii] https://www.thestranger.com/books/feature/2015/08/05/22646533/orcas-have-ruled-the-planet-longer-than-we-have-and-theyre-smarter-than-we-know

[xiv] https://www.peta.org/features/wild-captured-orcas-make-legal-history/

[xv] https://www.seaworldofhurt.com/features/court-case-seaworld/

[xvi] http://www.blackfishmovie.com/about

[xvii] http://time.com/3987998/seaworlds-profits-drop-84-after-blackfish-documentary/

[xviii] https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2014/03/07/san-diego-seaworld-orca-shows/6162331/

[xix] https://www.cnbc.com/2017/01/07/seaworld-san-diego-ending-killer-whale-shows.htm

Earth Law for the Indus River

River Indus near Skardu (Pakistan) By Kogo - photo taken by Kogo, GFDL, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=421282

By Francesca Sparaco and Earth Law Center staff

Earth Law Center and our partner Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum are seeking legal rights for the Pakistani portion of the Indus River.

Humans have depended on the Indus River for millennia

The longest river in Pakistan, the Indus River also ranks as one of the largest in Asia. It originates in Tibet at the junction of the Sengge Zangbo River and the Gar Tsangpo River and flows from Mount Kailash in the Himalayas. Springs from melting glaciers feed the river.[i]

Civilizations have thrived near the Indus River for nearly 8,000. There is evidence of religious practices dating back to about 5500 BCE (“before the common era”) in the Indus Valley. Farming practices began in the area at about 4000 BCE, and uban development one thousand years later at about 3000 BCE. Known as the “Indus Valley Civilization,” these people may have numbered over 5 million people at their peak. 

Ten Indus Signs, dubbed Dholavira. Reproduced under Creative Commons 3.0

Although they left a system of writing, it remains undeciphered – accounting for the little knowledge we have about the Indus Valley Civilization.
Today, the Indus provides water needed by Pakistan to thrive, including by supporting agriculture in the Punjab province – known as the breadbasket of Pakistan – and supplying drinking water to much of the country. The Indus also supports diverse aquatic ecosystems that include some 150 fish species and 25 amphibian species, including 22 that are endemic to the area.

Threats to the Indus River 

The Indus River and the Indus Delta are under threat from reduced flows, dam and canal construction, mangrove clearing and other habitat destruction, reduced sediment load, and severe pollution. Together, these impacts are severely degrading the health of this crucial river system.

Another negative impact comes from climate change. Rising temperatures and changes in weather patterns result in lost snowpack in the Himalayas, where most of the Indus’ water originates. [ii] Dwindling snowpacks affect rivers around the world; read more here in ELC’s blog about snowpacks.

As the Indus River’s 17 major creeks start to dry out, [iii] a recent study also noted that intrusion of seawater is salinizing drinking water for people living in the delta, also harming riparian plants and aquatic organisms that prefer freshwater.[iv]

Massive dams also present an existential threat to the river and riverside communities. The largest dam on the Indus, the Tarbela Dam, exists upstream of these provinces in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa region, therefore disrupting the natural cycles of this ancient river. Additionally, as noted by organizations such as the Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum, rural residents that live off of the fish populations of the Indus River have been negatively impacted by dam construction.[v]

A note about Mangroves 

The Indus delta supports the largest arid climate mangroves in the world. Mangroves are evergreen forests between land and sea, occupying large tracts in shallow coasts, estuaries, and deltas. These forests form the backbone of the Indus delta’s delicate ecosystem, providing a breeding ground and food for various species of fish and shrimp.

The survival of Indus delta mangroves is dependent on adequate flows of freshwater from the Indus River as it flows through the delta and into the Arabian Sea.[vi] But dwindling Indus River water flow has led to the loss of about 86% of the mangrove forest cover over the last 30 years.
Other threats to these mangroves include excessive pollution, navigational activities, livestock grazing, erosion, and sea level rise. If action is not taken soon to protect and restore these mangroves, this crucial ecosystem may reach a breaking point.

Meet the Indus River Dolphin

The Indus river dolphin is an endangered species that calls this ecosystem home. It is only one of four river dolphin species worldwide that lives only in freshwater sources.

Today just over 1,000 Indus River Dolphins exist. Their population has declined in large part due to the construction of irrigation canals, which confine them to a 750 mile stretch of the river (an 80% decline from their original range[vii]) and divide the dolphins into isolated populations.[viii] The canals degrade their habitat, impede migration, and strand dolphins.[ix] The muddiness of the river renders the dolphins practically blind, so they can only communicate and find food through echolocation.[x]

An innovative solution: Earth Law

Source: WWF Pakistan https://www.worldwildlife.org/species/indus-river-dolphin

Despite decades of environmental laws and treaties, our planet’s health continues to decline. One fundamental flaw is that under the present system, the environment has no voice in decision-making and cannot bring issues to court.[xi]

Our current laws protect nature only for the benefit of people and corporations, which means that economic outcomes typically overshadow environmental consequences. Even when environmental issues are brought to court, people have to prove that the damage infringes on their own rights, since the environment has no rights itself.

Earth Law presents a solution to this flawed system. Earth Law is an ethical framework that recognizes nature’s right to exist, thrive and evolve – enabling nature to defend these rights in court, just like corporations can. [xii]

What does this mean in practice? Earth Law will enable people to defend nature in the courts for the sake of nature itself. Earth Law also aims to protect the environment for all creatures. And it ensures true environmental protection via proactive action and effective restoration projects. 

Nature’s rights also benefit human rights.  Where the environment is harmed, people suffer from disease, violence, and land loss. Therefore, in many situations, both human and environmental rights are supportable without conflict, and indeed would support each other.  ELC has published two reports highlighting the connections between natural and human rights violations. 

How Can Earth Law Help the Indus River?

The Indus River has suffered from severe declines and continues to face severe threats. So long as the law treats the Indus River as mere property to be exploited for profit, this waterway will continue to be over-diverted, dammed, and polluted.

To address this threat, Earth Law Center is working with the Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum and partners to give legal rights to the Indus River. Already, we have written a draft “Indus River Rights Act” that is under review by thought leaders in Pakistan.

This draft law recognizes the inherent rights of nature in the River Indus, and recognizes their need to be protected. These fundamental rights of the Indus River include:

• The right to flow;

• The right to perform essential functions within its ecosystem;

• The right to be free from pollution;

• The right to feed and be fed by sustainable aquifers;

• The right to native biodiversity;

• The right to restoration.

When enforced, these rights would prevent the construction of misguided dams on the river. They would shift the public view of the river from property to be divided up to life-giving partner. And they would give the river an opportunity to rebuild its biodiversity.

Earth Law places guardianship over the river in the hands of local community members in partnership with government. These guardians will be able to represent the Indus River in legal proceedings, enter into contracts on behalf of the Indus River, and take other actions necessary to protect the river.

Earth Law already exists

Two countries, Ecuador and Bolivia, are leading the way in Earth Law, where ecosystems have rights just as people and corporations do.

In Ecuador, the Quechua hold a united worldview of humans and nature, where both belong to an interdependent global community. This perspective inspired the 2008 revised Ecuadorian constitution, which reads: "We ... hereby decide to build a new form of public coexistence, in diversity and in harmony with nature, to achieve the good way of living." Similarly, Bolivia grants Mother Earth the right to life and regeneration, biodiversity, clean water and air, and restoration, among others.

Local governments have also stepped up legal protections for their environments. The Whanganui River in New Zealand has appointed guardians who have a responsibility to protect the River and act as its voice. The Atrato River in Columbia has legally been granted rights to “protection, conservation, maintenance and restoration.” Numerous municipalities in the United States have enacted environmental legislation, including Santa Monica, CA, with the help of ELC.

From an international perspective, the United Nations General Assembly adopted its first resolution on Harmony with Nature in 2009.  Harmony with Nature works to construct a new paradigm of our relationship with Nature in a non-anthropocentric way. It catalogs member states’ law and policies securing Rights of Nature.
 
If enough people support Earth Law, change will happen quickly.  ELC is part of a growing group of concerned citizens who are committed to making Earth Law the next movement for change.

Act today and join the growing global movement of Earth Law:

• Stay informed

• Volunteer

• Donate

Visit www.earthlawcenter.org for more details.

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[i] http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Indus_River.

[ii] http://wwf.panda.org/our_work/water/freshwater_problems/river_decline/10_rivers_risk/indus/indus_threats/

[iii] https://qz.com/india/448049/the-slow-and-dangerous-death-of-pakistans-indus-river-delta/

[iv] https://tribune.com.pk/story/995886/water-matters-threats-to-indus-delta-have-wider-implications-says-experts/

[v] http://pff.org.pk/

[vi] http://www.naun.org/main/NAUN/geology/ijgeo-06.pdf

[vii] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006320715300999

[viii] https://www.worldwildlife.org/species/indus-river-dolphin

[ix] http://wwf.panda.org/knowledge_hub/endangered_species/cetaceans/about/river_dolphins/indus_river_dolphin/irdolphin_threats/

[x] http://www.discoverwildlife.com/animals/what-echolocation

[xi] https://www.earthlawcenter.org/faq/

[xii] https://www.earthlawcenter.org/

Earth Law: Reflecting the Interconnectedness of Nature

“It is a great testimony to the connectedness of life on earth that the fates of the largest and the tiniest life should be so closely dependent on each other.” 
― Steven Johnson, The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic - and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World[i]

Forest Osaka Japan by Laitche @ Wikimedia Common

Reconnecting humans with nature

Developed in Japan during the 80’s, shinrin-yoku (forest bathing) promises health benefits simply by spending time under the canopy of a living forest. The idea is simple: if a person simply visits a natural area and walks in a relaxed way there are calming, rejuvenating and restorative benefits to be achieved.[ii]

But it’s not just in Japan. Canadian experts Nisbet and Zelenski created a Nature Relatedness scale to assess affective, cognitive and experiential aspects of people’s connection to nature. The authors believe that disconnection from the natural world may be contributing to our planet’s destruction. Knowing your place in nature instead could bring meaning and joy.[iii]

Ecopsychology studies the relationship between human beings and the natural world through ecological and psychological principles.[iv] The field seeks to develop and understand ways of expanding the emotional connection between individuals and the natural world, as part of an ongoing and practical healing mission that recognizes and honors that the health of the individual human psyche depends upon the collective health of all the kingdoms of life on Earth.[v]

Respecting marine ecosystem interconnections: Krill

http://www.krillfacts.org/1-krill-facts-center.html

Just two inches long, these small invertebrates fuel Earth’s marine ecosystems. Antarctic krill are one of the most abundant animal species, there are about 500 million tons of krill in the Southern Ocean.[vi]

Krill feed on phytoplankton, microscopic, single-celled plants that drift near the ocean’s surface and live off carbon dioxide and the sun’s rays.[vii] In turn, whales, seals, penguins, squid and fish eat krill – at levels which are replaced by growth and reproduction. Most krill species display large daily vertical migrations, thus providing food for predators near the surface at night and in deeper waters during the day.[viii]

Warming oceans have caused a 40%+ drop in Antarctic krill populations[ix] on top of threats from human overfishing. Although krill are not often used for human food, demand has soared for krill as feed for farmed fish, nutritional supplements, and other products.[x] This has disastrous consequences for entire marine ecosystems, which depend on krill for their well-being.

A study co-authored by George Watters, lead scientist for the US government delegation to the Antarctic decision-making body Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR), warns that the penguin population could drop by almost a third by the end of the century due to reductions in krill biomass.[xi]

Respecting forest ecosystem connections: Fungi

On land, one of the most vital species to forest ecosystem health is one that humans rarely notice: the fungus. Fungi that play a vital role in the forest ecosystem by cycling energy cycling within, and between, ecosystems.[xii]

Amanita muscaria (fly agaric), Norway MichaelMaggs

The one you probably know best are mushrooms[xiii]. Fungi protect trees by forming a sheath on the root-tip and stimulating root-tip production. They help capture water and nutrients such as phosphorus and nitrogen from the soil to sustain the life of the plant. The fungi receive sugar from the tree in exchange.

Because mushrooms have no means of dispersing their spores on their own, they have developed odors to attract animals to eat them.[xiv] When trees are cleared for farming, “up to 99 percent of soil-borne fungi species will disappear”.[xv] When part of this system is weakened, the entire system is impacted. Deforestation disrupts the essential connection between the trees, the fungi, and the animals.

A Holistic Management approach to farming considers what is beneath the soil, above the soil, and in the air and specifically how actions today can change the land in a more positive manner.  Holistic Management has been successful in many different environments around the world by recognizing the interconnectedness of nature.[xvi]

Growing Trends of Nature Connectedness Behavior

The latest research demonstrates that nature connectedness (at a subjective level) is a reliable predictor of environmental behaviors.[xvii] For instance, nature relatedness was found to relate to concern for the environment, as people who scored high on nature relatedness were also more likely to belong to environmental organizations, and declare themselves environmentalists.[xviii]] 

High nature related people at the trait level (or individuals scoring high on one of the subscales of nature relatedness) were also more likely to self-report the following activities:[xix]]

File:Apivegetarianismwiki

• buying organic foods and products

• buying fair-trade products

• having a pet

• being a vegan

• actually spending more time in nature

Research has shown that individuals who think ahead and consider future events (individuals with a high consideration of future consequences) are more environmentally friendly. These individuals also show more concern for the environment and are more critical of environmental damage.[xx]

Although you might not be seeing in the news, these trends are picking up steam globally:

• Veganism: 7% of the UK population has gone plant-based[xxi], 6% of the US population now identifies as vegan – a 600% increase since 2014[xxii] (over 10% of Germans self-identify as vegetarian or vegan[xxiii])

• Pet ownership: An estimated 68% of households in the US own a pet[xxiv] (60% dogs, 40% cats[xxv]) while Argentinians love dogs most with 66% of households having a dog as a pet[xxvi

• Fair Trade products have grown from Euros 832 million in 2004 to Euros 7.8 billion in 2016.[xxvii]

How Earth Law evolves legal protection of this interconnectedness

Earth Law, including Rights of Nature, provides an ethical framework that recognizes nature’s right to exist, thrive and evolve - enabling nature to defend these rights in court. By focusing on ecosystems and species, Earth Law takes a holistic approach to addressing the environmental challenges of our day.

In the same way that species connect with each other to form flourishing ecosystems, Earth Law Center aims to connect with local communities and organizations to secure rights for local ecosystems and species. The Rights of Nature movement also serves to connect many related missions to protect the natural environment.

Despite decades of environmental legislation, Earth’s health continues to decline. Under the present system, the environment has no voice in decision-making and cannot bring issues to court.  Our current laws protect nature only for the benefit of people and corporations, which means that economic outcomes typically overshadow environmental consequences. Even when environmental issues are brought to court, people have to prove that the damage infringes on their own rights, since the environment has no rights itself.

In most countries, nature has the legal status of property.  In contrast, Earth Law argues that nature has inherent rights, and legally should have the same protection as people and corporations. Earth Law will enable the defense of the environment in court—not only for the benefit of people, but for the sake of nature itself.
Earth Law will enable people to defend nature in the courts for the sake of nature itself. Earth Law aims to protect the environment for all creatures.  It ensures true environmental protection via proactive action and effective restoration projects.

How you can get involved

With your help, we can restore our natural environment to health and balance. Act today and join this growing global movement.

Stay informed by signing up for ELC’s monthly newsletter

Volunteer for an initiative you care most about

Donate to help evolve protection of the natural world

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[i] https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/interconnectedness

[ii] http://www.shinrin-yoku.org/shinrin-yoku.html

[iii] http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0013916508318748

[iv] Anderson, G. "About eco-psychology".

[v] http://www.soulcraft.co/essays/ecopsychology.html

[vi] http://www.krillfacts.org/1-krill-facts-center.html

[vii] https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/invertebrates/group/krill/

[viii] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krill

[ix] http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0191011

[x] https://www.asoc.org/advocacy/krill-conservation

[xi] https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/feb/14/decline-in-krill-threatens-antarctic-wildlife-from-whales-to-penguins

[xii] https://sciencing.com/fungi-contribute-ecosystem-21989.html

[xiii] http://espacepourlavie.ca/en/role-mushrooms-nature

[xiv] Maser, Chris. Ancient Forests, Priceless Treasures. Restoration Forestry: An International Guide to Sustainable Forestry Practices. Edited by Michael Pilarski. Kivaki Pr, 1994.

[xv] Thomas, Abbie. "Native truffles are fun guys." ABC Science, http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2002/06/06/2589354.htm (accessed August 6, 2012).

[xvi] http://www.planet-tech.com/blog/interconnectedness-nature-truffles-united-states-and-australia

[xvii] Mayer, F. S., & Frantz, C. M. (2004). The nature connectedness scale: A measure of individuals' feeling in community with nature. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 24, 503-515

[xviii] Nisbet, E. K., Zelenski, J. A., & Murphy, S. A. (2009). "The nature relatedness scale: Linking individuals' connection with nature to environmental concern and behavior". Environment and Behaviour, 41, 715-740.

[xix] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nature_connectedness

[xx] Strathman, A., Gleicher, F., Boninger, D.S. & Edwards, C. S. (1994) The consideration of future consequences: Weighing immediate and distant outcomes of behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 66, 742-752.

[xxi] https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/vegans-uk-rise-popularity-plant-based-diets-veganism-figures-survey-compare-the-market-a8286471.html

[xxii] http://www.onegreenplanet.org/news/six-percent-of-americans-identify-as-vegan/

[xxiii] http://organic-market.info/news-in-brief-and-reports-article/germany-9-3-million-vegetarians-and-vegans.html

[xxiv] https://www.statista.com/statistics/198086/us-household-penetration-rates-for-pet-owning-since-2007/

[xxv] https://www.iii.org/fact-statistic/facts-statistics-pet-statistics

[xxvi] https://www.apertura.com/lifestyle/Why-there-are-so-many-dogs-in-Argentina-20170217-0006.html

[xxvii] https://www.statista.com/statistics/271354/revenue-of-fair-trade-products-worldwide-since-2004/

How Earth Law Supports Indigenous Views of Nature

Photo by Michelle Bender

By Michelle Bender, on the homeland of the Coast Salish Peoples

 As defined by the United Nations: Indigenous communities, peoples and nations are those which, having a historical continuity with pre-invasion and pre-colonial societies that developed on their territories, consider themselves distinct from other sectors of the societies now prevailing on those territories, or parts of them. [1]

Protecting Mother Earth Conference

Hosted by the LSqualli-Absch, the Nisqually People (People of the River, People of the Grass) and held within the territories of the Nisqually Nation, near Olympia, Washington [2] – the 17th Protecting Mother Earth (PME) Conference from June 28 to July 1, 2018 gathered indigenous nation representatives from around the world. One and a half thousand Indigenous Peoples, leaders, activists, youth, partners and allies joined together to learn and build relationships.

Indigenous-initiated, designed and led, the conference intended to share voices from the frontline battles against environmental injustice and climate change. The conference was held at Frank’s Landing, an empowering location due to hero Billy Frank standing up for his tribe’s treaty and fishing rights, and as a result being arrested over 70 times throughout his life.

I attended the PME Conference and came away with a new understanding and deep appreciation for the work and struggle of Indigenous people worldwide. I heard the stories of indigenous peoples and allies from across the globe; from the United States to Canada, to Brazil and Ecuador, to New Zealand and France.

• In North Dakota, the Standing Rock Sioux tribe continue their struggle to protect water and culture. [3] Both the U.N. Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples and the U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues condemned the U.S.’s failure to adequately consult the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe.

• The Apurina nation, along with many others, work to stave off logging in the Brazilian Amazonian rainforest, [4] in a country that has lost an estimated 20% of its forest already. [5] Ecuador representatives also spoke on the threats from logging, agriculture and false solutions to climate change (REDD).

• The Asubpeeschoseewagong First Nation, also known as Grassy Narrows faces resistance in holding Reed Paper mill and the Canadian government and for dumping 10 tons (20,000 pounds) of mercury into the Wabigoon River between 1962 & 1970. [6]

• In Australia, Indigenous peoples are under attack from mining interests, including a mega-coal mine in Queensland. It would be the biggest in the Southern Hemisphere and threatens land, air and water; and

• The ancestral lands of the Otomí Indians of Xochicuautla, Mexico is threatened by development projects, such as mega-highways, and they face human rights abuses such as assault and unjust detainment.

The conference contained deep sessions on Indigenous peoples struggles to protect their rights and Mother Earth from exploitation and extraction, while promoting a “just transition” to a sustainable and renewable society. Though these cultures live thousands of miles away from each other, their stories and struggles stem from the same causes and seek a unifying mesage: environmental justice.

Photo by Michelle Bender

It was truly an honor to be surrounded by such strong, courageous, passionate and influential people- to hear their stories firsthand, feel the emotion, and stand in solidarity. I left the conference more empowered to fulfill the mission of Earth Law Center- to advance earth-centered laws and policies, and community led movements that respect and protect all life on the planet- and to do so alongside our Indigenous allies.

“Powerful relationships were built and strengthened which will extend beyond the conference grounds. In fact, as you read this, Indigenous communities from across the globe are working in unity to mobilize for the Global Climate Action Summit in California where Governor Jerry Brown and corporations will promote and celebrate false climate solutions that further exploit and violate Indigenous Rights.” Indigenous Climate Action, co-host of PME conference.

Indigenous Nations bear the brunt of environmental destruction

Once numbering 13,500 Indigenous nations around the world, there are now 5,000 different cultures- approximately 370 million people. [7] Those that remain face ever increasing threats to their natural environments. [8] At the forefront of the threats are extractive industries: timber and logging, gas and oil, and mineral mining. These industries not only threaten the land, water and air, but Indigenous peoples’ livelihoods and cultures.

In Earth Law Center’s 2017 update report on co-violations of human rights and nature’s rights, 30 percent of examined cases involved harm to Indigenous peoples’ rights, despite their comprising only five percent of the world’s population. Such rights violations include acts of violence, including cases of murder, health effects through contaminated water and land, and “land-grabbing,” taking land without their consent. We remember the case of Billy Frank and the Nisqually tribe, who were told they no longer had rights to fish along the Nisqually River, just as they had done for generations.

Indigenous people worldwide are at the forefront of standing up and defending the Earth. In the traditions of many Indigenous peoples, everything is rooted in their original instructions, or cosmovision. [9] Everything is connected and we are all related. It is our responsibility as humans to live in harmony with Mother Earth, because she is the reason for our being. She is our air, our water, our food and our shelter.

Indigenous perspectives AND Earth Law

One of the plenaries at the conference was on the Rights of Nature. I took particular interest in this discussion because of Earth Law Center’s work to advance this movement and framework of law.

For Indigenous peoples, Rights of Nature is almost an unnecessary concept, because for them, the laws of mother earth, and the connectedness and dependency of every being, is both knowledge and culture. Nature has always been our “source” of life not a “resource.” Nature has always had rights and always will, and with our rights to use Nature- the water, the land- we also have a responsibility to protect it. So, I ask, why do we need Rights of Nature?

Because modern law has lost sight of natural law. Our laws fail to acknowledge that humans are a part of Nature and that the Earth’s systems have limits. Rights of Nature can be seen as a way to fix the inherent flaws in our legal systems. Rights of Nature works to compliment and reorient law around what Indigenous people have always known, but in a way that modern society functions, i.e. “rights.”

Tom Goldtooth, Executive Director of the Indigenous Environmental Network, stated that “we cannot have the recognition of our rights as Indigenous people if we do not recognize the Rights of Nature.”

As we move forward in this movement, it is important to keep this in mind as we draft new laws. If we are going to draft laws recognizing the Rights of Nature, we must first ground ourselves in the relationship, values and beliefs of the communities deeply rooted in this worldview, while honoring and respecting Indigenous rights and sovereignty.

Right of Nature Wins by Indigenous Nations

Maori in New Zealand

In 2013, the Tūhoe people and the New Zealand government agreed upon the Te Urewera Act, giving the Te Urewera National Park “all the rights, powers, duties, and liabilities of a legal person.” A Board was then established to serve as “guardians” of Te Urewera and to protect its interests. The stated purpose of the Act was to protect Te Urewera “for its intrinsic worth,” including its biodiversity and indigenous ecological systems.

By Prankster - Own work, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=23478072

As a result, the government gave up ownership of Te Urewera, and all decisions must serve the interests of and preserve the relationship of the Te Urewera and the Tuhoe people. From a legal standpoint, this legislation is monumental. There is no longer a requirement to demonstrate personal injury in order to protect the land; lawsuits “can be brought on behalf of the land itself.”

Similarly, the Maori people have successfully pursued similar results for the Whanganui River and its tributaries, under the Maori worldview “I am the River and the River is me.” Under the Tutohu Whakatupua Treaty Agreement, the river is given legal status under the name Te Awa Tupua. Te Awa Tupua is recognized as “an indivisible and living whole” and “declared to be a legal person.” Two guardians, one from the Crown and one from a Whanganui River iwi (tribe), will be given the role of protecting the river.

Additionally, these agreements have come with apologies from the Crown and payment for damages caused in the past. In the case of the Whanganui River a “financial redress of NZ$80m is included in the settlement, as well as an additional NZ$1m contribution towards establishing the legal framework for the river.”

Ponca Nation

In early 2018, with the help of ELC partners Movement Rights, the Ponca Nation of Oklahoma became the first tribe in the United States to pass a resolution recognizing the rights of nature. Largely in response to fracking and the exponential increase in earthquakes (almost 500 in 2017 alone), the Ponca Nation is taking a stand for their rights and the rights of Mother Earth.

“We are proud to be moving into the future by honoring our original instructions to respect all life on our Mother Earth,” says Casey Camp-Horinek, Ponca Nation. [10]

One key difference between this resolution and others around the world, is that the Ponca Nation included their right to take arbitrators to their tribal court, not state or federal court. This enables the tribe to more effectively protect their rights and that of their land.

Indigenous leader on the move: Teyuna first US tour

The Teyuna, the Arhuaco, Kankuamo, Kogi, and Wiwa peoples of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta region of Colombia, number approximately 40,000.

Over a dozen Teyuna nation leaders will embark on their first-ever tour of the U.S. spanning over 9,400 miles and 40 locations in 16 states from July 10 through September 14, 2018.

“The Teyuna call their home ‘The Heart of the World’. If there’s paradise at the end of the rainbow, they live in it. Nature responds to them. They’re coming to the US because time is running out for denizens of this land to take a more active roll in nurturing and caring for Planet Earth. The Teyuna plan to inspire them to do so. Those born to earth stewardship, specifically the indigenous nations of the US, comprise less then 2% of the population. The Teyuna plan to support them in the selfless service they’ve been providing for thousands of years.” says Mary Gaetjens, Teyuna Foundation President.

New Declaration Highlights the Connection between Indigenous Rights and Nature’s Rights

A French led group, Planete Amazone leads an Indigenous-led Alliance has created “The Declaration of the Alliance of Guardians and Children of Mother Earth” a global call to action for the preservation of the planet. The Declaration calls upon the adoption of solutions that recognize both the rights of indigenous peoples and the rights of Mother Earth. It also gives recommendations for concrete actions that can be implemented that are in line with its principles, including: “Urgently sanctuarize all primary forest spaces of this planet, traditionally under the watch of Indigenous peoples” and ceasing “all world government subsidies to industrialized fisheries.”

As experienced front and center at the PME conference, Indigenous peoples worldwide are leading the charge against environmental destruction. Earth Law and Rights of Nature may help western legal systems embrace and honor Indigenous peoples’ time immemorial understanding about relationship with the Earth. The result’s unfolding are a startling and precedent-setting transformation of legal standards based entirely on Indigenous relationships, values, ethics, and beliefs. 

Earth Law Center helps drive the global movement to stepping up protection of our natural environment by providing legal expertise to help evolve environmental law.

How you can get involved

• Stay informed

• Volunteer

• Donate

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1. https://www.un.org/development/desa/indigenouspeoples/about-us.html

2. http://www.ienearth.org/pme2018/

3. https://earthjustice.org/blog/2016-november/we-re-missing-90-percent-of-the-dakota-access-pipeline-story

4. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-brazil-landrights-indigenous/amazon-protectors-brazils-indigenous-people-struggle-to-stave-off-loggers-idUSKBN18X1MX

5. http://www.iflscience.com/environment/destruction-amazon-rainforest-visible-space/

6. http://www.cbc.ca/news2/interactives/children-of-the-poisoned-river-mercury-poisoning-grassy-narrows-first-nation/

7. https://stories.undp.org/10-things-we-all-should-know-about-indigenous-people

8. Mindahi Bastida Munoz, director of Otomi-Hñahñu people in Mexico, PME conference, plenary quote

9. Tom Goldtooth, executive director Indigenous Environmental Network at the PME conference

10. http://indigenousagain.com/first-tribe-u-s-recognizes-rights-nature-law/

Rights of Nature Takes Hold in Crestone, Colorado

From Creative Commons

On July 9, 2018, the Town of Crestone’s Board of Trustees unanimously approved a resolution recognizing the rights of nature. With this bold decision, Crestone joined the dozens of communities, cities, nations, and indigenous peoples across the world who recognize nature’s inherent rights.

This historic achievement was the result of a collaborative effort by Crestone’s mayor, government, local experts, and, above all, the community, which has a fervent desire to live in harmony with nature.

About Crestone

Crestone is a vibrant town located in south-central Colorado. While Crestone has only about 150 residents, over 2,000 people live in the greater Crestone-Baca Grande area. Crestone is a spiritual mecca, home to 23 spiritual centers representing Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity, Native American traditions, and many other belief systems.

But Crestone wasn’t always this way. In the early 1900s, it was a booming gold mining town. But as with many mining booms, it was relatively short lived, and by the late 1940s the frenzy had died down.

The area underwent a major change in 1978 when Maurice Strong – a Canadian businessman and UN diplomat – came to the region and, like many, fell in love with its magnificent wilderness. He purchased a large swathe of land and came up with an unusual idea: to donate land to any spiritual institution that would open up a center.

Soon, a Hindu temple, a Carmelite monastery, a Tibetan Buddhist center, a Zen center, and many others opened their doors. Crestone’s many spiritual centers exist in harmony with each other and commonly incorporate respect for nature into their teachings.

The Nature of the San Luis Valley

Crestone is located in an area of vast natural beauty. The town is tucked away along the rugged Sangre de Cristo Mountains, home to beautiful alpine lakes and diverse wildlife. West of Crestone are another mountain range: the San Juans.

Together, these two mountain ranges enclose two sides of the San Luis Valley –the largest alpine valley in the world at 9,000 square miles, about the size of Connecticut. The Valley supports thriving ecosystems and features a giant confined aquifer that gives life to the region. Some estimate that the aquifer contains 200 times the Colorado River’s annual flow. 

Several rare, threatened, and endangered species call the San Luis Valley home. These include the Gunnison Sage grouse, Rio Grande cutthroat trout, black-footed ferret, Canada lynx, Yellow-billed cuckoo, and the southwest willow flycatcher. Other local wildlife includes elk and mule deer, the sage thrasher, and the Brewer’s sparrow.

Black Footed Ferret from Creative Commons

Behind the Scenes of the Rights of Nature Resolution

The rights of nature movement in Crestone began with initial conversations between Crestone’s Mayor, Kairina Danforth, and Myra L. Jackson, a decades-long Crestone visitor who is also Senior Advisor on Whole Earth Civics for Geoversiv Foundation and an expert on rights of nature. Both share a deep love for Crestone and its natural environment. 

After additional local leaders expressed interest, Crestone invited Earth Law Center (ELC) to speak at a local rights of nature event. One of ELC’s primary goals is to connect and catalyze local partnerships towards advancing the rights of nature, so we were thrilled to participate. ELC has a regional office in Boulder, Colorado, about four hours from Crestone. 

Crestone hosted the rights of nature event at Colorado College Baca Campus on May 18, 2018. Thanks in large part to outreach by the local newspaper, The Crestone Eagle, over 50 community members were in attendance. These included highly respected environmental voices, such as John P. Milton, the pioneering ecologist and spiritual leader who once helped write several foundational U.S. environmental laws.

After ELC presented and held a Q&A, over a dozen community members stayed late to discuss their thoughts on protecting the San Luis Valley. Their deep and genuine interest in protecting nature ultimately fueled the rights of nature resolution that passed just weeks later.

Sample PowerPoint slide from ELC’s presentation

As an aside, the same weekend as its presentation to Crestone, ELC was honored to participate in a local trail building project. ELC’s Directing Attorney, Grant Wilson, teamed up with local outdoors enthusiasts to complete a new trail at the edge of Crestone, giving the community greater access to the outdoors.

Trail-building orientation with local volunteers.

Overall, the community response to rights of nature was very positive. And so several weeks later, Mayor Danforth consulted a team of rights of nature experts to give input on a draft resolution. These experts included Myra L. Jackson, Grant Wilson of ELC, and Marsha Moutrie, the attorney who led the drafting of Santa Monica’s own rights of nature law – the Santa Monica Sustainability Rights Ordinance. 

After finalizing the text, Mayor Danforth introduced the resolution to the Town of Crestone’s Board of Trustees. A spirited conversation ensued, cumulating in a unanimous vote to approve the resolution. It was official: Crestone was now amongst the growing number of governments worldwide that recognize nature’s inherent rights.

What Does the Resolution Say?

Considering the town’s spiritual and ecological splendor, it comes as no surprise that Crestone’s rights of nature resolution itself is inspiring and full of life. For example, the resolution pays homage to the area’s history as a sacred place:

WHEREAS, special recognition of the primacy of this relationship existed in the region long before the town of Crestone was founded, when Native American tribes considered the area to be sacred land and journeyed here for rites of passage seeking insight and rejuvenation.

The resolution also recognizes the longstanding role of humans as environmental stewards:

WHEREAS, today, as in the past, visitors and residents alike receive nourishment, inner peace, and spiritual renewal from the region’s pristine sacred land, and town residents reciprocate these gifts by serving as stewards of the natural environment;

And crucially, the resolution makes a bold commitment to recognizing the rights of nature in Crestone:

…the Town of Crestone does officially recognize that nature, natural ecosystems, communities, and all species possess intrinsic and inalienable rights which must be effectuated to protect life on Earth.

The full resolution is available on Earth Law Center’s Crestone page. It makes an excellent read, particularly if you are interested in using it as a model to advance the rights of nature in your own community.

Next Steps

After recognizing the rights of nature, Crestone will now work to put this new resolution into practice. While it’s up to the town what to do, next steps could include new policies that implement nature’s rights, local sustainability programs, and potentially a legally-binding ordinance. Whatever they do, it will be certain to further Crestone’s commitment to protecting nature.

Additionally, ELC will use Crestone’s success as a model for other communities. For example, we are creating a community toolkit that includes case studies (such as Crestone), model language, and other tools to inspire the larger rights of nature movement. Myra L. Jackson and other leaders who made Crestone possible are joining us in this work. Together, we can advance a new legal paradigm that protects all life on Earth.

View of the San Luis Valley from Crestone, Colorado

How you can help

• Sign up for the ELC monthly newsletter to stay informed

• Join us and volunteer

• Support us and donate

• Or start a new initiative

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1. http://www.slvec.org/projects/threatened-and-endangered-species

Earth Law for Angoon, Alaska

By Jaishal Dhimar

For thousands of years, civilizations have organically spurred up near water sources. Of course any civilization near a water source gains use of easy to access shipping routes, but even today with our multitude of planes and highways for ground transport, we humans continue to find the coast home. 39% of the world’s population currently live directly on the shoreline.

As the world’s coastlines recede due to the devastating effects of global warming we see an increase in people living closer to the coastline. Naturally, seafood production and consumption has increased.

The Native Tnglit people of Alaska, whose name translates to “People of The Tides” have called the Southeastern Alaskan shoreline home for thousands of years. Much of their diet consists of local seafood and other native species. As stated in my last blog, much of coastal land was or is owned by private companies.

The Tnglit people are facing an issue from the Green Creaks Mining company. Green Creaks is encroaching on natural land in Hawk Inlet by infesting it with their dumping. This infected water disturbs local fauna, and creatures as far as sixty miles away in Angoon, where a large Tnglit population resides. As coastlines recede more of the dangerous minerals from the mining company is breaching further away from it’s dumping site. We have to re examine policy to keep up with changing environmental systems.

Source: University of Alaska www.uaf.edu/anla/collections/map/

What is Angoon/Hawk Inlet?

Hawk Inlet is a beautiful port considered to be apart of Juneau, Alaska. Hawk Inlet is a key part of Juneau, as not only is it a port, but also used as a nearby airport, and apart of the Admiralty mining district. Hawk Inlet has been a key part of infrastructure for Alaska’s capital, Juneau, for over one hundred years. Without this key district, much of Alaska’s economy would be in shambles, as the mining district is the 5th highest producer of silver in the world, and a huge producer of other materials as well.

Source: John Cobb Field Handbook(University of Washington) content.lib.washington.edu/cobbwebb/index.html

Hawk Inlet has been a port since 1908.

There is one allowed discharger of materials in Hawk Inlet and that is Green Creeks Mine operated by Hecla Green Creeks Mining Company. Green Creaks had an ore spill in 1989 and studies show that there is three times as much mercury in local shellfish, and sediment compared to the rest of the state of Alaska. Many of these creatures travel downstream, and are consumed by seal and other species, who have  been found with excess mercury in their systems.

For reference, fish do often naturally have small amounts of mercury in their system as the Earth’s crust creates mercury organically. However, Alaskan native species are often found to have very little to no mercury in their system. The Green Creeks Mining company is seeking to expand.

Angoon is a gorgeous natural habitat and has the highest density of brown bears and bald eagles in the world. About sixty miles downstream from Hawk Inlet, it is off the beaten trail, Rarely visited by tourists, especially compared to Juneau, but Angoon is home to some of the coastal Tlingit people. Angoon is in protected territory, in the center of the Tongass National forest that could possibly be adversely affected by the pollution coming off from Hawk Inlet.

Figure 1 Source: Carl Chapman "Driving to Alaska" flickr.com/photos/12138336@NO2/1953213698/

The small city of Angoon

The mine is an important economic factor from the mines to Juneau, but the people of Angoon are being directly impacted as well as other people ingesting some of the local seafood. This is only a small fraction of the problem as not only is Hawk Inlet affecting local areas, other mines near Juneau are flowing into tributaries near the Taku River, close to Juneau. Many of these mining companies decide to leak material into the rivers and dealing with the light consequences later. Comments have been made about the Tulsequah Chief Mine, that while the government requests the mining companies clean up their mess, the mining companies either account for the fines and continue to do what they were doing previously, or ignore the requests completely.

Day Trip to Angoon Joseph/Umnak http://www.flickr.com/photos/umnak/

What’s Being Done?

The Tlingit people and other tribes banded together to create a coalition to tackle these problems that impact indigenous people’s way of life. The Angoon Community Association, tackles the various issues that prevent Angoon citizens from having say in issues related to their home and surrounding area, along with being a bastion for community outreach.

I want to thank “Di-kee aan kaawoo” which translates to “Our heavenly Father” for the opportunity to take care of the resource. A quote by Frank Jack, Sr., Tlingit Bear Chief and House Master of the Shanaax Hit (Valley House) of Angoon, Alaska.

The association have multiple demands, including but not limited to,

1. Indigenous peoples have the right to the full enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms;

2. Indigenous peoples have the right to participate in decision-making in matters which would affect their rights, through representatives chosen by themselves in accordance with their own procedures, as well as to maintain and develop their own indigenous decision making institutions;

3. States shall consult and cooperate in good faith with the indigenous peoples concerned through their own representative institutions in order to obtain their free, prior and informed consent before adopting and implementing legislative or administrative measures that may affect them;

4. Indigenous peoples have the right, without discrimination, to the improvement of their economic and social conditions, including, health;

5. Indigenous peoples have the right to their traditional medicines and to maintain their health practices, including the conservation of their vital medicinal plants, animals and Minerals;

6. Indigenous peoples have the right to maintain and strengthen their distinctive spiritual relationship with their traditionally owned or otherwise occupied and used lands, territories, waters and coastal seas and other resources and to uphold their responsibilities to future generations in this regard;

7. States shall establish and implement a transparent process to recognize and adjudicate the rights of indigenous peoples pertaining to their lands, territories and Resources;

8. Indigenous peoples have the right to redress for the lands, territories and resources which they have traditionally owned or otherwise occupied or used, and which have been confiscated, taken, occupied, used or damaged without their free, prior and informed consent;

9. Indigenous peoples have the right to the conservation and protection of the environment and the productive capacity of their lands or territories and resources; and

10. Indigenous peoples have the right to determine and develop priorities and strategies for the development or use of their lands or territories and other resources.

In short, the people of indigenous demand retribution for not only themselves, but the land that has been abused, ask for representation in future projects relating to their territory or resource, and have the right to their traditional culture.

What Would Earth Law Look Like For Angoon?

Option 1: Amendment of Angoon Community Association Constitution

ELC can assist in drafting amendments to the “Constitution and By-laws of the Angoon Community Association Alaska.” Ratified in 1939, the law can be amended to adapt to the present times and to provide a stronger foundation to protect indigenous and nature’s rights. ELC partners Movement Rights and CELDF have helped the Ho-Chunk Nation and Ponca Nation amend their constitution to include rights of nature. On October 20th 2017, the Ponca Tribe of Oklahoma took the historic step of agreeing to add a statute to enact the Rights of Nature. 

Ho-Chunk Nation of Wisconsin general council voted to add “rights of nature” to tribal constitution 2016. The amendment establishes: “Ecosystems and natural communities within the Ho-Chunk territory possess an inherent, fundamental and inalienable right to exist and thrive.” Further it prohibits frac sand mining, fossil fuel extraction, and genetic engineering as violations of the Rights of Nature. 

Option 2: Pass a Sustainability Rights Ordinance for Angoon

ELC can assist in drafting a local law that can address the issues Angoon faces. Particularly, the law may include the right of Angoon’s community to self-governance, to a healthy environment and to defend and enforce the rights of nature and other applicable laws. This can also include specific provisions referring to restoration of Hawk Inlet, practices regarding the mine and gray water discharge, and stricter implementation of the CWA.

Option 3: Treaty Agreement for legal rights for the Hawk Inlet and/or Chatham Straits

ELC can assist in drafting a treaty agreement between the Angoon Community Association and the State or Federal government. The agreement would include declaring the ecosystems as legal entities. The agreement would also create new standard procedures for decisions, all must go through a designated Board, to be comprised of both Angoon community members and state/federal persons to ensure all decisions serve the interests of the ecosystem.

In 2013, the Tūhoe people and the New Zealand government agreed upon the Te Urewera Act, giving the Te Urewera National Park “all the rights, powers, duties, and liabilities of a legal person.”

A Board was then established to serve as “guardians” of Te Urewera and to protect its interests. The stated purpose of the Act was to protect Te Urewera “for its intrinsic worth,” including its biodiversity and indigenous ecological systems.

As a result, the government gave up ownership of Te Urewera, and all decisions must serve the interests of and preserve the relationship of the Te Urewera and the Tuhoe people. From a legal standpoint, this legislation is monumental. There is no longer a requirement to demonstrate personal injury in order to protect the land; lawsuits “can be brought on behalf of the land itself.”

Similarly, the Maori people have successfully pursued similar results for the Whanganui River and its tributaries, under the Maori worldview “I am the River and the River is me.” Under the Tutohu Whakatupua Treaty Agreement, the river is given legal status under the name Te Awa Tupua . Te Awa Tupua is recognized as “an indivisible and living whole” and “declared to be a legal person.”

Two guardians, one from the Crown and one from a Whanganui River iwi, will be given the role of protecting the river.

Additionally, these agreements have come with apologies from the Crown and payment in damages caused. In the case of the Whanganui River a “financial redress of NZ$80m is included in the settlement, as well as an additional NZ$1m contribution towards establishing the legal framework for the river.

In essence, the government has allowed mining companies to decide what actions they want to take. Whether that is half way cleaning up long lasting damage, or deciding to dump in new territories, there is little substantial action taken that deters companies from moving forward with long set plans.

If Earth Law is bestowed upon the Association’s land, this will allow for higher levels of protection for all the surrounding ecosystem, animals, and the humans to allow for prosperity across generations rather than the short-lived mine that only benefits the corporation. 

How you can help

• Check us out at www.earthlawcenter.org to keep updated on how Earth Law Center is working to transform the law to recognize and protect nature’s inherent rights to exist, thrive, and evolve.

• Stay informed and sign up for our newsletter

• Become a volunteer with ELC

• Donate to the initiative

My previous blog about Louisiana Wetlands.

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• https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2016/07/14/bp-deepwater-horizon-costs/87087056/

• http://thorpe.ou.edu/IRA/consangoon.pdf

• https://dec.alaska.gov/spar/csp/mercury/

• http://dhss.alaska.gov/dph/Epi/eph/Documents/DHSS_DEC_2016-02-29_Angoon%20Response.pdf

• http://www.friendsofadmiralty.org/hawkinlet.htm

• https://www.adn.com/environment/article/angoon-officials-worry-about-mercury-subsistence-foods/2016/02/07/

• http://juneauempire.com/local/2017-04-27/angoon-seal-hunters-still-solving-mercury-mystery

• https://ourworldindata.org/meat-and-seafood-production-consumption

• content.lib.washington.edu/cobbwebb/index.html

• www.uaf.edu/anla/collections/map/

Rights for the Anchicayá River in Colombia

The Anchicayá River before it joins with the Digua River by Mateo Gable Wikimedia Commons

By Earth Law Center

In June 2018, Earth Law Center (ELC) and partners submitted an amicus brief to the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights and Colombia’s Consejo de Estado , two judicial bodies who are considering the case involving a dam on the Anchicayá River. ELC is proud to have worked with International Rivers and the human rights group Réseau International des Droits Humains (RIDH) on this campaign. 

Meet the Anchicayá River

This Anchicayá River watershed is known for its vibrant biodiversity, featuring diverse and rare birds, amphibians and butterflies. It is also famous for being one of the best birdwatching areas in South America. [1] While incredible in its beauty and vibrant ecosystems, the Anchicayá River is also impaired by damming and other sources of degradation, which also plagues many other rivers in Colombia. 

Threats to the Anchicayá River and communities who live nearby

The primary inhabitants of this Anchicayá River region are Afro-descendant communities who are directly dependent on the surrounding natural environment. On July 21st, 2001 there was an illegal discharge of approximately 500,000 m3 of accumulated sediment from a hydroelectric dam on the Anchicaya River, which gravely affected those inhabiting the region downstream of the dam. [2]

The discharge also devastated vulnerable ecosystems, including aquatic species that live in the River. In addition, there was a scarcity of potable water, crop damage, and harm to riverine and coastal mangroves. [3]

Local Communities Sue

In response, the communities of the Lower Anchicaya region began a lawsuit in 2002 against the energy company in charge of the dam. After years of deliberations favoring the downstream communities, in April of 2012 the Constitutional Court of Colombia ruled in favor of the energy company in charge of the dam, overruling 10 years of deliberations. Through Judgment T-274, the Constitutional Court of Colombia declared that the direct valuation studies that had been made in 2002, shortly after the spill, were inadmissible due to lack of objectivity and rigor and ordered that the studies be repeated. [4]

The dozens of communities along the coast of the Anchicayá River then filed a class action lawsuit, led by lawyer German Ospina, which resulted in a decision in 2015 by the Constitutional Court of Colombia. The court ruled in favor of the Anchicayá community and ordered that the communities be indemnified. [5] However, subsequent legal proceedings have once again put into question how much the community will be paid, and when.

The current court case

Afro-Colombian communities impacted by the Anchicayá River disaster continue to seek compensation, which has not been made despite over 17 years of courtroom battles. The communities, represented by attorney German Ospina, most recently sought justice from both the “Consejo de Estado” – Colombia’s highest administrative court – and the International Commission on Human Rights.

While the final outcome of this legal battle remains unclear, the communities remain committed to seeking justice for themselves and the river ecosystem upon which they depend.

What is an Amicus Brief?

Amicus curiae, from Latin, means "friend of the court." [6] An amicus curiae brief (or “amicus brief” for short) offers an opportunity for groups and individuals to submit relevant information to a case to inform the court – without having to be a party to the lawsuit.

In most countries, judges can choose whether or not to read or consider an amicus brief, but either way, it becomes part of the record of that case. In countries like Brazil, the law requires judges and both parties in a case to consider any amicus briefs submitted.

The Process

In Colombia, ELC and partners International Rivers and RIDH submitted an amicus brief to both the Consejo de Estado and the International Commission on Human Rights. In addition to supporting the claims of the impacted Afro-Colombian communities, the amicus brief calls for recognition of the inherent rights of the Anchicayá River in order to ensure its protection and restoration as a right.

 These amicus briefs build from emerging legal precedent in Colombia, where courts have recognized the rights of the Atrato River and the entire Colombian Amazon. It also draws from a recent opinion of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights that highlights the movement to establish legal rights for nature. 

As this ongoing legal saga reaches its final stages, ELC is committed to supporting the impacted Afro-Colombian communities until the very end. Therefore, we plan to submit additional amicus briefs to all future courts that consider this case.

How Can Earth Law Help?

Imagine how it would be if The Anchicaya River had rights. What would be different if local communities could defend their rights along with the rights of the river? These rights could include the right to flow; the right to perform essential functions within its ecosystem; the right to be free from pollution; the right to feed and be fed by sustainable aquifers; the right to native biodiversity; and the right to restoration. [7]

Personhood for rivers has already been recognized in New Zealand, India, 43 and Colombia, and nature’s inherent rights are recognized in the countries of Bolivia and Ecuador as well as Mexico City and over 30 municipalities in the US.

Through our amicus brief campaign, we hope that the Anchicayá River is recognized as a legal entity possessing rights. But this is just the beginning, as ELC and partners plan to submit amicus briefs in support of nature’s rights in courtrooms in Latin America, USA, Europe, and elsewhere. 

Take Action Today to Help Save the Anchicayá River

Act today and join the growing global movement of Earth Law by:

• Staying informed of Earth Law Center 
• Volunteering with ELC 
• Supporting ELC 
• Contact ELC if you want to work on your own river rights campaign

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1.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anchicay%C3%A1_River
2.  https://www.researchgate.net/publication/297735896_Ecosystem_service_valuation_framework_applied_to_a_legal_case_in_the_Anchicaya_region_of_Colombia
3.  https://drreade.ml/shares/read-online-evaluacion-economico-ecologica-de-los-impactos-ambientales-en-la-cuenca-del-bajo-anchicaya-por-vertimiento-de-lodos-de-la-central-hidroelectrica-anchicaya-spanish-edition-1496049519-epub-by-lola-floresdavid-batkermaya-kocian.html
4.  https://www.researchgate.net/publication/297735896_Ecosystem_service_valuation_framework_applied_to_a_legal_case_in_the_Anchicaya_region_of_Colombia
5.  https://m.facebook.com/EarthEconomics/posts/10153269431573841
6.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amicus_curiae
7.  Universal Declaration of River Rights at https://www.earthlawcenter.org/river-rights/