Rights of Nature: Ecuador's Novel Approach to Mitigating Climate Change
By Ken Fowler
Recent scientific studies on climate change paint a bleak picture of the biosphere. In reaction to this large-scale destruction and impending international global crisis, the United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres stated that the “world must step up” to protect the Earth from “the immediate and ever-growing risk of the climate emergency.” The Rights of Nature (RoN) legal approach is a system communities around the globe can implement to “step up” responses to the climate change threat and mitigate climate change impacts through an alternative legal mechanism. The RoN movement gives nature the legal right to survive and thrive. The RoN movement has spread across the globe but saw its first nationwide adoption in Ecuador in 2008.
RoN doctrine holds that nature is not the property of humans but independent living beings with intrinsic value and an inherent right to exist. Accordingly, RoN endows non-human species with legal rights in recognition that humankind and nature share a fundamental relationship that should be acknowledged and respected. RoN has been a part of customary law and world views of many indigenous populations worldwide for centuries, with the concept gaining global momentum in the 1980s. RoN mechanisms have been implemented in countries across the globe as constitutional amendments and statutes, and through court action.
RoN legal mechanisms can combat climate change by recognizing nature’s right to not be subjected to the harmful impacts of human-induced climate change. RoN provisions can provide nature standing in court to receive protection from further human-induced harm and receive compensation for harms already sustained.
RoN mechanisms were first identified on an international scale as means to combat climate change in 2010 when more than 35,000 people attended the World People’s Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth in Cochabamba, Bolivia. This conference was held as a response to unsuccessful climate talks during the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP) in Copenhagen in December 2009. After the conference, participants produced the Universal Declaration of the Rights of Mother Earth and the People’s Agreement. Both documents state the necessity of implementing RoN frameworks to deal with the climate change crisis. A draft of the Declaration was adopted, but ratification of a final document has failed despite a yearly dialogue about the Declaration's proposal at the UN.
Additionally, in the wake of the 2010 conference, the Rights of Nature Tribunal was created. This international tribunal hears cases on issues including climate change and fossil fuel extraction and decides cases based on RoN principles. The court lacks official power or jurisdiction but sets RoN precedents and shows how RoN legal mechanisms can be used to mitigate climate change-causing activities.
Ecuador became the first country to implement RoN legal mechanisms on a national scale in 2008 when it endowed all nature within its jurisdiction with rights protected in its constitution. RoN provisions came to be included in Ecuador’s constitution after Rafael Correa was elected president in 2006, following over a decade of extreme political and economic instability. Correa ran his presidential campaign on a promise that he would fundamentally restructure Ecuador’s political and economic systems. He vowed to create a development system for the country that diverged from traditional neoliberal development models.
Prior to 2007, the RoN movement had not appeared on Ecuadorian political agendas although it was present within the Andean indigenous concept sumak sawsay, or buen vivir (“good living” in Spanish). This indigenous concept is considered a philosophy of life that recognizes living in harmony with nature. Part of Correa’s restructuring of Ecuador involved the creation of a new constitution. Correa allowed for a highly participatory process in the writing of the constitution which included the involvement of indigenous, environmental, and leftist organizations. To share the message of sumak sawsay, Fundación Pachamama, an Ecuadorian non-profit organization, mobilized a campaign to enshrine nature as a subject with legally enforceable rights within the new constitution. The organization also did substantial work educating the public about RoN by promoting radio spots, theatre plays, opinion articles, and engaging with other international RoN non-profits for assistance. During this same time, a class action lawsuit was filed by over 30,000 Ecuadorian people against Chevron Texaco for dumping billions of gallons of crude oil and toxic wastewater into the Amazon rainforest. Public disgust at highly extractive capitalistic activities, the desire to create a better system, and the participation of environmental and indigenous leaders led to RoN being included in the final draft of the new constitution.
The Ecuadorian Constitution grants nature the right to exist, maintain integrity, and regenerate as well as be restored if injured independent of human claims for compensation. Additionally, any person can call upon public authorities to enforce the RoN and the State itself has a duty to enforce and protect RoN. After the passage of the new Constitution Correa stated that “a new history and a new homeland had begun.” Today Ecuador’s national RoN system is considered the strongest and most expansive in the world.
RoN mechanisms have been widely accepted as legal structures that can help combat climate change. Ecuador has created constitutional guarantees to RoN that have resulted in the protection of species, ecosystems, and environments within its boundaries, making it more prepared to mitigate the impacts of the climate crisis. Other nations and communities should follow Ecuador's lead and create RoN provisions to ensure a survivable future for all. Recent scientific studies on climate change paint a bleak picture of the biosphere. In reaction to this large-scale destruction and impending international global crisis, the United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres stated that the “world must step up” to protect the Earth from “the immediate and ever-growing risk of the climate emergency.” The Rights of Nature (RoN) legal approach is a system communities around the globe can implement to “step up” responses to the climate change threat and mitigate climate change impacts through an alternative legal mechanism. The RoN movement gives nature the legal right to survive and thrive. The RoN movement has spread across the globe but saw its first nationwide adoption in Ecuador in 2008.
RoN doctrine holds that nature is not the property of humans but independent living beings with intrinsic value and an inherent right to exist. Accordingly, RoN endows non-human species with legal rights in recognition that humankind and nature share a fundamental relationship that should be acknowledged and respected. RoN has been a part of customary law and world views of many indigenous populations worldwide for centuries, with the concept gaining global momentum in the 1980s. RoN mechanisms have been implemented in countries across the globe as constitutional amendments and statutes, and through court action.
RoN legal mechanisms can combat climate change by recognizing nature’s right to not be subjected to the harmful impacts of human-induced climate change. RoN provisions can provide nature standing in court to receive protection from further human-induced harm and receive compensation for harms already sustained.
RoN mechanisms were first identified on an international scale as means to combat climate change in 2010 when more than 35,000 people attended the World People’s Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth in Cochabamba, Bolivia. This conference was held as a response to unsuccessful climate talks during the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP) in Copenhagen in December 2009. After the conference, participants produced the Universal Declaration of the Rights of Mother Earth and the People’s Agreement. Both documents state the necessity of implementing RoN frameworks to deal with the climate change crisis. A draft of the Declaration was adopted, but ratification of a final document has failed despite a yearly dialogue about the Declaration's proposal at the UN.
Additionally, in the wake of the 2010 conference, the Rights of Nature Tribunal was created. This international tribunal hears cases on issues including climate change and fossil fuel extraction and decides cases based on RoN principles. The court lacks official power or jurisdiction but sets RoN precedents and shows how RoN legal mechanisms can be used to mitigate climate change-causing activities.
Ecuador became the first country to implement RoN legal mechanisms on a national scale in 2008 when it endowed all nature within its jurisdiction with rights protected in its constitution. RoN provisions came to be included in Ecuador’s constitution after Rafael Correa was elected president in 2006, following over a decade of extreme political and economic instability. Correa ran his presidential campaign on a promise that he would fundamentally restructure Ecuador’s political and economic systems. He vowed to create a development system for the country that diverged from traditional neoliberal development models.
Prior to 2007, the RoN movement had not appeared on Ecuadorian political agendas although it was present within the Andean indigenous concept sumak sawsay, or buen vivir (“good living” in Spanish). This indigenous concept is considered a philosophy of life that recognizes living in harmony with nature. Part of Correa’s restructuring of Ecuador involved the creation of a new constitution. Correa allowed for a highly participatory process in the writing of the constitution which included the involvement of indigenous, environmental, and leftist organizations. To share the message of sumak sawsay, Fundación Pachamama, an Ecuadorian non-profit organization, mobilized a campaign to enshrine nature as a subject with legally enforceable rights within the new constitution. The organization also did substantial work educating the public about RoN by promoting radio spots, theatre plays, opinion articles, and engaging with other international RoN non-profits for assistance. During this same time, a class action lawsuit was filed by over 30,000 Ecuadorian people against Chevron Texaco for dumping billions of gallons of crude oil and toxic wastewater into the Amazon rainforest. Public disgust at highly extractive capitalistic activities, the desire to create a better system, and the participation of environmental and indigenous leaders led to RoN being included in the final draft of the new constitution.
The Ecuadorian Constitution grants nature the right to exist, maintain integrity, and regenerate as well as be restored if injured independent of human claims for compensation. Additionally, any person can call upon public authorities to enforce the RoN and the State itself has a duty to enforce and protect RoN. After the passage of the new Constitution Correa stated that “a new history and a new homeland had begun.” Today Ecuador’s national RoN system is considered the strongest and most expansive in the world.
RoN mechanisms have been widely accepted as legal structures that can help combat climate change. Ecuador has created constitutional guarantees to RoN that have resulted in the protection of species, ecosystems, and environments within its boundaries, making it more prepared to mitigate the impacts of the climate crisis. Other nations and communities should follow Ecuador's lead and create RoN provisions to ensure a survivable future for all.