Florida
Thomas Linzey, Senior Counsel for the Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights (CDER), has been working with communities across Florida for the past year. Beginning with a workshop he conducted for activists in the spring of 2019, this has led to a dozen communities advancing legislative proposals and initiatives to protect the legal rights of rivers and bays, the launch of the Florida Rights of Nature Network, and the first-ever statewide Florida Rights of Nature Conference.
At the grassroots level, efforts include successful votes by the Orange County Home Rule Charter Commission and the Alachua County Home Rule Charter Commission on the rights of nature. The Commissions are voting on advancing rights of nature initiatives for placement onto county ballots. Linzey recently presented to the Alachua Board of County Commissioners during a special public hearing on the rights of nature. Grassroots groups in other communities are collecting signatures to directly qualify rights of nature initiatives onto county ballots.
In February 2020, CDER partnered with the state Network for the Florida Rights of Nature Conference held in Gainesville. Held as part of the annual Public Interest Environmental Conference at the University of Florida law school, the conference was dedicated to the concept of rights of nature, and CDER and the state Network programmed a day of the conference dedicated to advancing the rights of nature across the state. We brought in speakers from Colombia, Minnesota, and Pittsburgh who have been involved in enacting rights of nature laws and litigating the rights of nature in court.
Following the conference, community groups officially launched the Florida Rights of Nature Network to expand rights of nature initiatives across the state. The Network has now taken a lead role in opposing two bills introduced into the Florida House and Senate which seek to preempt localities from adopting rights of nature laws. State environmental groups, including the Florida Waterkeepers and 1,000 Friends of Florida are now also opposing the bills.
CDER is training community organizers and lawyers across the state. This includes conducting trainings for Florida attorneys, as well as providing organizing support for community spokespersons for the rights of nature movement. As the number of community groups increases, we continue to engage in legislative drafting of local laws and initiatives, including creating template rights of nature laws for Florida communities.
In November 2020, Orange County, FL voters overwhelmingly approved a ‘Rights of Nature’ initiative. They became the largest municipality in the United States to adopt a ‘rights of nature’ law. This was the result of CDER and the Florida Rights of Nature Network working to secure the petitions necessary for the addition of this ballot initiative for the right to clean water “to exist, flow, be protected against pollution, and to maintain healthy ecosystems”.
In 2021, the first enforcement case in the U.S. was filed under a rights of nature law. The lawsuit was filed in the 9th Judicial Circuit Court of Florida by Wilde Cypress Branch and other waterways to enforce their legal rights against a proposal to destroy wetlands and streams.
Two citizen-sponsored initiatives were also filed in Florida, in the U.S., to establish the rights of rivers and other waterways, as well as the rights of iconic species, within a state constitution. The proposed state constitutional amendments were the first to be approved for ballot petitioning in the U.S.
