We help communities and groups like yours.
We are not a typical environmental organization. We assist communities to develop first-in-the-nation, groundbreaking laws to protect rights – including worker, environmental, and democratic rights, and rights of nature. CELDF provides free and low cost legal services, grassroots organizing, and education, to communities, states, and countries facing injustice. We help them to assert their rights to fight the harms they face. Learn more about how we work, or call us now at: 717-498-0054.
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News from the Grassroots
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Media Statement: Crowdfunding to Defend Lake Erie
The oil and gas industry tried to quash the Lake Erie Bill of Rights at the ballot. The agriculture industry is trying to quash it in court. CELDF is crowdfunding as we represent Lake Erie and Toledo community members to protect the Lake's rights.
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The Blade: BP wasted money fighting LEBOR
The Editorial Board of the Toledo Blade calls out the irony of Houston-based BP Corporation funding the anti-Lake Erie Bill of Rights campaign, which attacked the citizen initiative as led by "outside influencers."
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Earth Day Network: The Rights of Nature: Building a New People’s Movement for the Earth
The Rights of Nature movement is underway and growing - and there is no time to lose. Learn about this new legal paradigm and how it's transforming our relationship with nature.
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Toledoans for Safe Water: Campaign Finance Report Sheds Light on Corrupt Corporate Influence Against the Lake Erie Bill of Rights
BP Corporation was the sole monetary donor behind the campaign to quash the Lake Erie Bill of Rights (LEBOR). The measure won with 61% of the vote.
View All Upcoming Events
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Local Democracy: Empowering Local People in Vermont
April 26, 2019 — April 27, 2019Join CELDF's New England organizer Michelle Sanborn in Vermont to learn about using Community Rights and Rights of Nature to protect communities and drive state level change.
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Redefining Environmentalism For The Climate Emergency
April 28, 2019What does environmentalism mean in an age of climate emergency - and what do we do when acceptable forms of dissent are not working? Join First Nation water protector Waniya Locke and CELDF's Thomas Linzey at this event.
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Invisible Hand Screening in Belfast, Maine
April 28, 2019Belfast, Maine, residents host a screening of Invisible Hand, a documentary on Rights of Nature. CELDF's New England organizer Michelle Sanborn joins for a Q & A. Learn more here!
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Local Democracy: Empowering Local People in Maine
April 29, 2019Join us in Maine as we explore the barriers to sustainability, and what communities can do about it, through this empowering workshop.
Fight for a more democratic tomorrow, today.
Our democracy has been usurped by corporations. Please give today to help CELDF return the democratic process to the people. CELDF uses every dollar of your donation to fight for rights.
CELDF Donation
Thank you for donating to CELDF!
Your generous donations are advancing the Community Rights and Rights of Nature movements! Our work is possible because of your support.
CELDF has helped communities to protect themselves from environmental, democratic, and other harms by securing rights since 1995.
Thank you for helping CELDF return the democratic process to the people!
Featured Articles
The Guardian: Our laws make slaves of nature. It’s not just humans who need rights
May 23, 2018As the recognition of Rights of Nature grows globally, we must move beyond thinking of nature as having legal personhood rights. We must recognize rights of ecosystems to existence, regeneration and restoration.
Blog: Dangerous to the 1% – An Informed Public
May 16, 2018An uninformed, passive public is easy to for the 1% to lead. We must become knowledgeable - not just about what is happening, but how and why. We must take on difficult questions and challenge the status quo if we are going to create a new way of life.
Blog: Black History Month, White Supremacy, and Community Rights
February 25, 2018CELDF's Tish O'Dell shares discoveries of her own white privilege when fracking came into her community - and how Dr. Martin Luther King and Black Lives Matter inform her work with communities today
A Problem: Corporations have been granted rights allowing them to wreak havoc in communities for over 200 years.We can stop this. Here's how...
Immerse yourself in the fundamentals of our current legal system.
Learn how to better understand the issues of our time.
Discover the keys to affect lasting change.
Learn MoreShow Your Support. Take Action Now.
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Water Protectors in Nottingham, NH
Show Your SupportNottingham, NH, residents have stood their ground to protect the Lamprey River Watershed, a water ecosystem supporting innumerable human and natural communities. They are up against water thieves – corporations taking their water against the will of the people.
For over a decade they have enforced their Community Bill of Rights banning corporate water withdrawals. CELDF stands with them.
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Lincoln Co, OR, Residents & the Siletz River Challenge the Timber Industry
Show Your SupportFor decades, Lincoln County, OR, residents and surrounding ecosystems have been subjected to toxic aerially spraying of pesticides by the timber industry.
Today, they’ve had enough. Working with CELDF, they are asserting the rights of the Siletz River, their own rights to clean air and pure water, and – together – they are challenging the timber industry.
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Grant Township, PA: A Stand to Protect Their Water & Their Community
Show Your SupportFor more than 3 years, Grant Township, PA, residents have been fighting PGE’s proposed frack wastewater injection well. Now their own Department of Environmental Protection has turned on them as well. Grant residents are unwavering in their commitment to protect their community.
CELDF is standing with them.