By Silvia Francescon
Current laws and policies cannot stop the loss of biodiversity and the climate crisis because they are based on separation of humans from the rest of Nature. They have failed at preventing ecological disasters precisely because they are based on a system that views Nature as property and soils, lands, water as “resources” that can be commodified and exploited. This system is anthropocentric at its core, i.e. based on human exceptionalism – the belief that humans are separate from Nature and superior to it, and that Nature exists for the benefit of humans.
We need to rethink human relationships with Mother Nature. Environmental philosophers like Arne Næss, Gary Snyder, Joanna Macy, Stephanie Kaza, have turned to deep ecology and Buddhism as the conceptual ground for a new ecological ethics that sees humans as non-separate (interdependent) from nature and that attributes sacred value to non-humans. The rocks, trees, streams, mountains – all have Buddha nature, as Kūkai elaborated in Japan and, similarly, by Dōgen, who re-read the line from the Nirvāna Sūtra “All sentient beings without exception have Buddha-nature” as “All is sentient being, all beings are Buddha-nature”. Also, in Buddhadāsa Bhikku’s spiritual biocentric view, the destruction of nature implies the destruction of the dhamma. Phra Prayud Payutto (Dhammapitaka) attributes environmental destruction to a Western worldview flawed by the belief that humankind is separated from nature and that human beings are masters of nature. Beloved teacher Thich Nhat Hanh, who coined the term “inter-being”, wrote: “although we human beings are animals, a part of nature, we single ourselves out from nature, thinking of other animals and living beings as “nature” and acting as if we are not part of it […] we should deal with [Nature] the way we should deal with ourselves. We shouldn’t harm ourselves, and we should not harm Nature. In fact, to harm Nature is to harm ourselves”.
Many communities, and now an entire movement, are reimagining the relationship with Mother Earth by restoring or reassembling indigenous wisdom, traditions, and knowledge. As the Māori saying goes, “Ko au te awa, ko te awa ko au” – “I am the river, and the river is me.” To pollute water is to pollute people.
To accomplish this deep transformation, from ownership to oneness with the natural world, from human-centred to Earth-centred, rights of Nature are essential, useful (although not exclusive and sufficient) tools. Their recognition helps implementing the conversion from the way the modern world perceives nature (anthropocentric human exceptionalism) into biocentric deep ecology, based on the notion of non-duality and equality of life.
The Seed of Siena Declaration adopted in 2022 by the Global Alliance on the Rights of Nature recites: “We are all nurtured by the same sunlight and moon and share the same breath of life from the forests, grasses, oceans, and sky. Everything, including we humans, is interdependent in this glorious, intricate, interconnected web of life”. Mother Earth is the source of life, nourishment and learning and we are all interdependent beings with a shared destiny.
The rights of Nature movement is rooted in 1972 Christopher Stone’s article “Should Trees Have Standing? – Toward Legal Rights for Natural Objects”, in Thomas Berry’s notion of “earth jurisprudence,” according to which the laws of societies follow and conform to the laws of nature, and – philosophically – on Arne Næss’ deep ecology for which the living environment should be respected and have inherent value and rights to live and flourish, independent of its instrumental benefits for human use.
Rights of Nature, which establish that Nature has the right to exist, flourish and regenerate, extend the recognition of legal personhood to rivers, mountains, and non-human animals. In their current form, rights of Nature still rely on a system of modern law, especially through the proliferation of jurisprudence rulings. The radical transformation that our world needs, however, requires to strengthen Indigenous Peoples perspectives, whose laws, including customary-non-rights-based pathways and traditional knowledge, are drawn from their inherent relationship with Mother Earth.
It is the indigenous movement in Ecuador that inspired the introduction of rights of Nature in the Ecuadorian 2008 Constitution through the Andean indigenous concept of sumac kawsay (living in harmony with Nature). The Preamble of the Constitution refers explicitly to Pacha Mama and human kinship with water, land, and the other species. The New Zealand government has worked with Māori tribes to recognize the rights of certain rivers (since 2017 the Whanganui River has legal personhood), mountains, and forests (in 2014, the Te Urewera from a government-owned national park has become a legal entity with all the rights of a legal person). In 2016, Colombia’s Constitutional Court recognized the rights of the Atrato River, and, in India, a 2017 court decision declared the Ganges and Yamuna Rivers to be living entities with legal rights. In 2022 the Mar Menor lagoon has been granted rights by the Spanish parliament, that also committed to the restoration of the highly degraded area. This is the first European ecosystem to receive recognition of rights of Nature.
Indigenous peoples are working to restore their rights and customary laws, such as the Ponca Nation of Oklahoma adopting a new statute for the rights of the Ní’skà, and Ni’ží’dè Rivers and other water bodies within their territory. COP15 of the Convention on Biological Diversity has also included rights of Nature in its decisions for the first time ever in 2022. There are multiple cases and rulings around the world that recognize rights of Nature: their evolution can be found at https://ecojurisprudence.org which provides physical and political maps tracking rights of Nature in the world.
This is beyond law and the legal system. This is a world-wide movement that is revolutionizing the system we are based on. The intertwined ecological, social, and spiritual crises of today are based on the illusions of separation and superiority which deny interconnectedness and oneness. These can be solved only when this separation-based system will be replaced with one based on connection, entanglement, and mutuality—in other words, with the wisdom of interdependence.
About the author
Silvia Francescon is the Head of the Ecological Program at the Italian Buddhist Union and Fellow at the New Institute Center for International Humanities (NICHE) at Cà Foscari University in Venice, where she is conducting research on Buddhism, Deep Ecology and the Rights of Nature. Silvia extensively worked for international and Italian institutions: OECD, WTO, European Commission. She was negotiator for Italy for several international environmental agreements at the Ministry for the Environment and coordinator of the G8/G7/G20 Task Force at the Italian Prime Minister’s Office. She also directed the Millennium Campaign of the United Nations and the Rome Office of the European Council on Foreign Relations. Silvia is the co-founder of EquALL and Women in International Security. She is the happy mother of Giovanni and Sofia, a mountains lover, a certified yoga teacher and has been a dharma practitioner for the last 30+ years.
This article first appeared in EBU Magazine #10 – Ecodharma (Spring 2023). Download the full issue as PDF or browse all issues.