Press Release: Washington State Rights of Nature Initiative Launches
For release: Earth Day, April 2023
Washington State Rights of Nature Initiative Launches
Contact:
Rachel Kurtz-McAlaine, Co-Founder and President
Rights of Nature Initiative
(206) 227-2561
rachelkurtz@ronicoalition.org
Thomas Linzey, Senior Legal Counsel
Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights
(509) 474-9761
info@centerforenvironmentalrights.org
The Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights (CDER) is pleased to share the news that our partner group – the Rights of Nature Initiative – is launching a new non-profit organization in Washington State to advance the rights of nature.
CDER, headquartered in Spokane, Washington, is partnering with the Rights of Nature Initiative (RONI), based in Olympia, Washington, as it begins to engage with communities across the state seeking to protect the legal rights of nature.
The rights of nature movement is growing worldwide. CDER's founders have worked on the first rights of nature laws in the world, including with communities in the United States and the first national constitution to enshrine these rights in Ecuador.
Today, multiple countries and communities have enacted laws protecting the rights of nature, which include rights to exist, to habitat, to restoration, and other rights. Elevating the protection of nature – for the first time to include even the most basic right to exist – is a significant departure from how nature is treated under existing environmental laws.
Today’s environmental laws regulate the use and exploitation of nature, including authorizing the filling and destruction of wetlands, the emissions of greenhouse gases, and the contamination of millions of gallons of fresh water at every frack well. Treating nature as an endless resource has led to the overlapping environmental crises that we face today, from massive species extinction, collapse of coral reefs and other ecosystems, as well as climate change.
Beginning in 2006, with the first rights of nature law in the world – drafted by CDER's Senior Legal Counsel, Thomas Linzey – there began a shift in how nature is protected, recognizing nature as a living entity with legal rights. This represents a significant and necessary shift in humankind's relationship with the natural world.
Rachel Kurtz-McAlaine, RONI Co-Founder, explains that launching the Rights of Nature Initiative in Washington State is both timely and necessary. She says, “By securing the legal rights of nature, we can safeguard ecosystems and promote environmentally responsible development. We are committed to helping people navigate the process of running and passing initiatives that make a lasting, positive impact.”
CDER's Linzey adds, “Without efforts like these to drive legally enforceable rights of nature into law, we will continue to pollute waterways, further decimate salmon populations, and treat nature as something whose only value is for humans to use and exploit. The launch of this statewide effort signals the acceleration of a new civil rights environmental movement, one which is destined to become the new paradigm in the U.S. and abroad to truly protect nature. This movement will be built on the work of people in their own communities, adopting their own rights of nature laws, and enforcing them against corporations and governments that violate those rights.”
RONI will be engaging with communities across the state, including through the citizen-sponsored initiative process. To learn more about how to get involved in Washington, visit RONICoalition.org. To learn more about the rights of nature movement, including laws, court rulings, and enforcement efforts in the U.S. and around the world, visit centerforenvironmentalrights.org.
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