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.
News from the Grassroots
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Press Release: Ho-Chunk Nation General Council Approves Rights of Nature Constitutional Amendment
The General Council of the Ho-Chunk Nation votes overwhelmingly in support of a Rights of Nature constitutional amendment.
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The Intercept: How a Ragtag Group of Oregon Locals Took On the Biggest Chemical Companies in World — and Won
The chemical industry is doing all it can to shut down communities from banning toxic chemical use. But in Oregon, CELDF partners in Lincoln and Lane Counties refuse to fold. This is their fight for their lives and their communities - and it's growing.
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Toledo City Paper: Water Rights: Protecting Lake Erie and our Drinking Water
Toledoans for Safe Water are determined to protect Lake Erie through their citizen initiative recognizing the rights of the Lake to exist and flourish.
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WGRZ.com: Nature's Law: The Rights of Nature to Exist
CELDF is working with communities across the U.S. and around the world to advance the Rights of Nature - and the movement is growing.
View All Upcoming Events
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Screening: Invisible Hand, a Rights of Nature documentary from Public Herald
September 20, 2018Join Youngstown, OH, residents, CELDF's Tish O'Dell, and Invisible Hands co-producer Joshua B. Pribanic for this screening on Rights of Nature, featuring Grant Township, PA.
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Wild Law Conference in the UK
September 21, 2018Join CELDF's Mari Margil at this conference in the United Kingdom on Rights of Nature, September 21st!
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International Rights of Nature Symposium – Quito, Ecuador
September 26, 2018 — September 28, 2018Learn more about this 10 year anniversary event: the Ecuadorian people adopted the world's first Rights of Nature constitution in 2008 - and the movement has been growing ever since. Join us!
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How You can Protect People & Planet over Profit – Epping, NH
September 27, 2018New Hampshire communities look at Community Rights to protect themselves from the Granite Bridge pipeline project. Learn more here!
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Ohio Community Rights Conference
September 29, 2018The Ohio Community Rights Conference: Growing Roots and Rights for Just Communities is bringing together people with diverse issues from across the state to discover common origins and explore systemic solutions. Join us!
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Always know the latest news from the front of the movement. Aside from donating time or money, joining this list is the best way to support the ongoing efforts of CELDF.
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...
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.
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.