Watch the recording of our September webinar on the rights of nature movement in the Philippines. We were joined by National Coordinator Yolanda Esguerra and Attorney Mario Maderazo of the Partnership Mission for People's Initiatives (PMPI).

The rights of the rivers of Bangladesh have been upheld by the country’s Supreme Court.

Live on YouTube now: This month, our Rights of Nature webinar focused on the rights of nature in India, where courts have recognized rights of the Ganges River and other ecosystems. Presenter Shrishtee Bajpai, of the organization Kalpavriksh in Pune, India, discusses recent developments with the rights of nature, including the rights of rivers.

Thomas Linzey, CDER’s senior legal counsel, is hitting the road (virtually) for CDER’s Fall 2020 College Speaking Tour. Linzey will present “Who Speaks for the Trees? The Movement for the Rights of Nature” at college and universities in both presentations and speeches, on virtual platforms, between September 15 - December 15.

After Florida’s governor preempted a pending Orange County charter amendment that would protect two rivers, a local advocacy group sued, testing a growing movement known as Rights of Nature.

In 2008, Ecuador took the extraordinary step of enshrining the legal rights of nature—or Pachamama—in its national constitution. It was the first country to do so. And in so doing, it established the highest legal protections for nature that exist in Western law. As a person privileged to have participated in that process, I continue to marvel that the nation took that step. It’s never easy to go first.

Will the virus known as SARS-Cov-2 be the tipping point for humanity – the point at which we realize that our incessant bulldozing of the natural environment must end because we are destroying ourselves along with it?

The recording of our most recent webinar — Rights of Nature in Australia — is available to watch on YouTube now, featuring Western Australia Member of Parliament Diane Evers, and Michelle Maloney of the Australian Earth Laws Alliance and the Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights.

Orange County, FL: It was business as usual today, with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis elevating the interests of polluters over protections for the people and waterways of his state. Today, DeSantis signed the mis-named “Clean Waterways Act.”

What if San Antonio had a bill of rights? What might it look like? Could it have rights of nature in it, that ecosystems within the city of San Antonio have certain rights? Absolutely. Are you gonna run up against a system of law that says you can’t do it? Yes, you are. It’s a fact.

On May 7, we held our first monthly webinar on the Rights of Nature. Presenters Mari Margil and Thomas Linzey discussed the origins of Rights of Nature laws and how the movement to recognize rights of the natural world is building through lawmaking and court decisions in countries across the globe.

Across the state, Florida waterways are under siege. …In response to those threats, however, people in nine Florida counties, including Alachua, have begun to demand stronger water protections.

By becoming a bearer of rights, nature is now being thrust into the murky realm of legal personhood.  

Conventional environmental laws have allowed Adani’s Carmichael coal mine go forward in Australia. It’s time we changed them.

For decades our laws have been a death sentence for the environment. Now, from the Amazon to Australia, the tide is turning