A Meeting of Rivers: Exploring the Rights of Nature in the UK

Across the globe, a legal and environmental revolution is occurring. In places such as Ecuador, New Zealand, Columbia, Uganda, Spain, and Canada, communities and indigenous groups are protecting their local ecosystems from human exploitation by granting them rights. The "Rights of Nature" (RoN) movement marks a radical shift away from a view in which nature is seen as a resource for human use, and to a model in which nature is recognised as part of our moral and legal community. As such, the RoN movement has been presented as exactly the paradigm shift needed to address the environmental crises we currently face. This movement is steadily growing, with at least 27 countries passing RoN legislation, and many others currently developing it.

Though the method of recognising these rights is different in each context, RoN legislation generally has two features: a recognition that we have responsibilities to nature which goes beyond human use of it, and a recognition that indigenous and local communities are best placed to represent the interests of nature in a legal context. Recognising this, RoN legislation often involves the creation of new representative roles which give previously disenfranchised communities the ability to manage their local environment through representing its rights and interests. As such, RoN connects environmental and social sustainability, and embodies the idea the health and empowerment of local communities is intimately connected with the health and empowerment of ecosystems.

The RoN movement in the UK is slowly growing. In the last three years, community charters, motions in local councils, and community declarations across the UK have recognised nature's rights, with some attempting to pass RoN policy. But these fledgling RoN initiatives face at least two serious obstacles. Firstly, these groups are for the most part isolated from each other and from the global RoN movement. Secondly, there currently exists little academic research into the possibility and plausibility of recognising RoN in the UK which these groups might draw on. This project will address both issues.

This project aims to bring existing RoN initiatives in the UK together to form a new network, to facilitate communication, the exchange of information, and possible collaboration on RoN action in the future. Through a series of workshops, this network will explore ways of understanding nature's rights; how RoN can or should be represented; the legal frameworks in the UK which might enable or prevent RoN; and how local communities can collect ecological data to support their nature advocacy. An interdisciplinary team of academics will guide these workshops and, in conjunction with the network of practitioners, undertake a definitive exploration into the possibility and plausibility of RoN in the UK context. Comprised of a philosopher, a legal theorist, and an ecologist, this interdisciplinary team will produce a definitive report into the conceptual grounding, legal pathways, and ecological measurement which could underpin any future RoN legislation. As such, the project will be of lasting benefit to local communities, policymakers, and legal practitioners interested in RoN within the UK and elsewhere.