The Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights (CDER) is offering free webinar training workshops to connect those that want to grant Nature rights in the places they live and beyond. Below is a brief description of the Rights of Nature work and the webinars that are being offered.

by Thomas Linzey, Special Counsel

What a difference fifteen years makes.

In 2005, I began talking with communities and grassroots groups about the need to adopt laws which recognize legally enforceable rights of ecosystems and nature. This involved arguing that nothing short of human rights-style protections for nature could reverse the tide of destruction that we have rained down on the natural world.

Few listened. Even fewer acted. Many laughed.

But as time passed, a new understanding has emerged across the globe. It is based in the knowledge that unless we stop treating nature as property, whose use can simply be permitted and regulated, and instead elevate protection of nature to our highest legal standards, we threaten the very systems upon which all life – including our own – depends.

Today, the Great Barrier Reef is experiencing bleaching and die-off, a global wave of extinction is sweeping across animals and plants, the climate is beginning to boil, and the oceans are acidifying to the point where they strain to support life.

It has become clear that we must work to strengthen the Earth’s own immune system by changing our system of law and governance to secure a permanent place for nature and ecosystems. Some countries and communities have begun this transition, recognizing legal Rights of Nature, with courts beginning to recognize that rivers, forests, and other ecosystems are to be accorded legal rights and protections.

To do this means crashing the party of the Western system of law – a system which sees nature as merely a “thing” to be used – and forcing open the doors of legislatures and courts to let nature in. Further, it means, that dominant legal systems must finally recognize that humankind is not an island existing alone on the Earth.

Over more than a decade, we’ve been sharing the lessons that we’ve learned – from the legislative hallways of Ecuador’s Constituent Assembly as they wrote the world’s first constitution to include the Rights of Nature; to the small borough of Tamaqua, Pennsylvania, the first municipality in the U.S. to adopt a Rights of Nature law. To share the experiences that we’ve had, and to spotlight the work that is now occurring in bigger and broader circles around the world, the Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights is launching a series of free webinar training workshops to connect those who want to do this work with those that have.

Free Webinars & Trainings

We are hosting free monthly webinars on the most recent developments in the Rights of Nature field, which will provide an opportunity to delve deeper into the concept. Join us to hear from activists who are advancing Rights of Nature law and policy, discuss key concepts, and more. In addition, for those seeking to learn more and build campaigns to advance Rights of Nature laws and polices.

(To learn more details about this webinars being offered please click HERE to visit CDER’s website.)