You searched for rights of nature - Page 3 of 12

Aug 4, 2015

Champion the Rights of Nature

CELDF is pioneering the work for rights of ecosystems – or the “rights of nature” – working with communities and states across the U.S., and in countries around the world, to develop rights-based legal frameworks to protect the environment.

The Rights of Nature & Self-Governance – San Andres Archipelago, Colombia

The Raizal people of the Archipelago of San Andrés, Providencia, and Santa Catalina off the coast of Colombia work with CELDF to recognize the Rights of Nature and to achieve their right to self-determination. CELDF travels to the Archipelago this month. Learn more here.

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Jul 14, 2015

Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation Funds CELDF’s Work to Advance Rights to Local, Democratic Self-Governance and Rights of Nature

CELDF receives support from the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation.

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Apr 13, 2015

Griffith Journal of Law and Human Dignity: Finally Being Heard: the Great Barrier Reef and the International Rights of Nature Tribunal

Just over a year ago, the International Tribunal for the Rights of Nature and Mother Earth sat for the first time in Quito, Ecuador. Here, Michelle Maoney of the Australian Earth Laws Alliance shares the powerful, alternative narrative that emerged from the Tribunal, whereby Rights of Nature are recognized, codified, and enforced.

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Feb 16, 2014

CELDF in Otavalo, Ecuador, for a Rights of Nature conference.

CELDF, a founding member of the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature, joined in an international gathering hosted by the Alliance in Octavalo, Ecuador, in January. Read more here.

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Dec 6, 2013

CELDF partner in Rights of Nature work, Fundacion Pachamama, Shut Down by Ecuadorian Government

CELDF partner, Fundacion Pachamama, was shut down this week by the Ecuadorian government. Learn more on how you can help.

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Aug 5, 2013

Noozhawk: Fracking and the Rights of Nature

Community Rights and the Rights of Nature are changing our western legal paradigm, and are tools to protect Santa Barbara, CA, from fracking.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

Mar 14, 2013

Rights of Nature on the Santa Monica City Council Agenda

Santa Monica City Council introduces California’s first community rights ordinance, recognizing the right to self-governance, clean air and water, sustainable food and energy systems, and the rights of nature.

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Feb 10, 2013

CELDF’s New Frontiers: Building a Grassroots Movement for Community Rights and the Rights of Nature

Slideshow Narrated by Thomas Linzey

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Jan 21, 2013

$Dr. Stephen Cleghorn signed the 1st Rights of Nature based legal easement on his 52 acre organic farm in late 2012. Click here to view a stirring speech he gave in 2011, passionately taking a stand to stop fracking and protect the land.$

Dr. Stephen Cleghorn signed the 1st Rights of Nature based legal easement on his 52 acre organic farm in late 2012. Click here to view a stirring speech he gave in 2011, passionately taking a stand to stop fracking and protect the land.

Presentation by Dr. Stephen Cleghorn, a sociologist and an organic farmer from Jefferson County, PA, and was recorded at the Epic No Frack Event at Ithaca College.

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Jun 19, 2012

United Nations Radio: Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature promotes its cause at Rio+20

The Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature is….calling for global recognition and acceptance of Rights of Nature. They say an essential step for achieving this is to introduce a system of jurisprudence that sees and treats Nature as a fundamental, rights bearing entity and not as mere property to be exploited at will.

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Aug 5, 2011

CELDF’s Ben Price on Local Self Governance and Rights of Nature (Parts 1 through 3)

CELDF Projects Director Ben Prices talks with Simon Kaiwai of New Zealand, sharing knowledge of how communities have overcome such things as fracking, mining, water rights, human rights, GE, GMO, corporate personhood and unwanted state plans for their local environment.

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May 3, 2011

Pachamama Hosts Global Alliance for Rights of Nature in San Francisco

The Rights of Nature, The Case for a Universal Declaration on the Rights of Mother Earth. Co-produced by Global Exchange, the Council of Canadians, The Pachamama Alliance, and Fundación Pachamama.

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May 3, 2011

Pachamama Hosts Global Alliance for Rights of Nature in San Francisco

Rights of Nature panel at Global Alliance for Rights of Nature, San Francisco.

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Sep 28, 2008

Press Release: Ecuador Approves New Constitution: Voters Approve Rights of Nature

By an overwhelming margin, the people of Ecuador today voted for a new constitution that is the first in the world to recognize legally enforceable Rights of Nature, or ecosystem rights.

Sep 10, 2021

Newsletter: Asheville Climate Bill of Rights Begins Signature Gathering

A new ordinance seeks to place a Climate Bill of Rights on the 2022 ballot, which explicitly challenges North Carolina’s infamous state preemption scheme and privileges afforded private corporations.

May 28, 2021

Podcast (Climate One): “Should Nature Have Rights?”

On May 28, 2021, CELDF’s Lindsey Schromen-Wawrin joined Rebecca Tsosie (constitutional and Indigenous law scholar of Yaqui descent and regents professor of law at the University of Arizona) and Carol Van Strum (Lincoln County Community Rights) on the nationally syndicated Climate One podcast.

Read More | News, News from the Grassroots

Sep 10, 2019

My Plainview: How giving legal rights to nature could help reduce toxic algae blooms in Lake Erie

An analysis of Rights of Nature laws as a path forward to protecting ecosystems in the face of continuing environmental harms.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

Jul 10, 2019

Mother Jones: A New Wave of Environmentalists Want to Give Nature Legal Rights

Read More | News from the Grassroots, Success Story

Jun 26, 2019

Media Statement: Ohio Group Submits Signatures to Recognize Rights for Michindoh Aquifer

Community Rights and Rights of Nature continue to grow in Ohio as Williams County residents submit their citizen initiative to protect themselves from corporate water withdrawals.

Read More | Community Wires, News, Press Releases, Success Story

Aug 7, 2018

The Toledo Blade: Toledo water group collects signatures for “Lake Erie Bill of Rights” inclusion on Nov. ballot

Toledo, OH, community members submit petitions to place a Lake Erie Bill of Rights citizen initiative on the November ballot. The measure recognizes the right of Lake Erie to exist and flourish, protecting it from major pollutors.

May 23, 2018

The Guardian: Our laws make slaves of nature. It’s not just humans who need rights

As 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.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

May 14, 2018

Center for Humans & Nature: Does Fracking Violate Human Rights?

Check out the stories being submitted as evidence this week at the international Permanent People’s Tribunal, where the PPT is considering fracking, climate change, and the violation of the rights of people and nature.

Akron Beacon Journal: Medina County group files 6,578 signatures seeking November vote on community bill of rights

In Medina County, OH, residents gather over 6,500 signatures, qualifying for the November ballot a Community Rights County Charter banning fracking activities. They join six other Ohio cities and counties advancing similar measures.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

Jun 5, 2016

Akron Beacon Journal: Portage County group seeking signatures on petition calling for community bill of rights vote

Portage County, OH, residents gather signatures to place a Community Rights County Charter on the November ballot to ban fracking activities. Residents are advancing rights to protect themselves from the oil and gas industry.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

Jan 16, 2014

National Catholic Reporter: Nature’s rights gain some legal standing

At the Global Rights of Nature Summit in Otavalo, Ecuador, CELDF representatives and other organizations gather to call for the advancement of the Rights of Nature to protect the planet.

Wired: Giving Nature Its Own Rights Might Avert Future Oil Disasters

Considering the rights of ecosystems dates to 1972 with Christopher Stone, and has evolved today to local laws establishing Rights of Nature as a means to protect against destructive activities.

Taking on Corporations and Giving Rights to Nature

Why 1 in 3 Children is Chronically Ill, and Wild Weather and Media Silence on Climate Connections.

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Dec 5, 2010

Does Nature have Rights?

Thoughts on Democracy School

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Sep 28, 2008

The New York Times: Ecuador Constitution Grants Rights to Nature

Ecuador makes history with the people’s adoption of a new Constitution recognizing the Rights of Nature to exist and flourish.

Read More | Community Wires, News from the Grassroots

May 12, 2023

Radical Resilience and Restoration for Wetland Rights

On June 28th CELDF’s Kai Huschke will be presenting at the Society for Wetland Scientists annual conference.

Toledo voters approved a bill of rights for Lake Erie. A group wants the same for the Ohio River

Feature photo by Bill Rinehart/WVXU “An advocacy group wants Cincinnati to recognize the right of the Ohio River to thrive. Members of Citizens for the Rights of the Ohio River Watershed are circulating a petition to get an amendment to Cincinnati’s charter on the ballot. Susan VonderHaar says CROW members want to give the river a seat… Read more »

Apr 17, 2023

Ohio River Rights Campaign Launched by Cincinnati Residents

“We began to understand through this process that we are not only connected to the Ohio River, but that we are part of the ecosystem,” stated Jim Schenk of CROW.

The Myth of American Democracy: The Ruling Class Crusade Against Community & Nature

Wednesday, April 19th at 6:30 PM (Central Time) CELDF’s Tish O’Dell will be a panelist on for the upcoming discussion, The Myth of American Democracy: The Ruling Class Crusade Against Community & Nature hosted by Athens Community Rights Coalition at Ohio University.

Read More | Community Wires, Events, News, News from the Grassroots

Mar 14, 2023

Guest Blog: We Must Overturn SCOTUS Decisions That Effectively Deny Rights to Black People

The posting of this piece is a reflection of CELDF’s commitment to featuring diverse perspectives and ideas in the quest to bring about a community rights and rights of nature existence into full being.

Community Conversation: Rights and Rites

Using illustrator and writer Shaun Tan’s short story “Bears with Lawyers” as a touchstone, this discussion will interrogate the societal conception of rights (and rites) within our current legal system and beyond.

Wouldn’t You Say? – Saving the Economy Means Not Saving Nature

At the risk of expediting the die-off of most life on the planet, including most humans, judges continue to turn a blind eye toward the rights of natural communities – where humans live in harmony with their environment – while giving full-throated support for legal rights vested in corporate property.

Tumbled by the surf: Figuring out which wave to ride next for recognizing rights

We must think about our history- the Revolutionaries were proposing an alternative to being a colony of England, abolitionists were fighting for an alternative to slavery, the suffragists for an alternative to patriarchy and on and on.

Do No Harm: Protecting the Rights of Mangroves in Ecuador From Injury

Mangroves, according to the Ramsar definition, are considered wetlands – an area that CELDF is also helping to evolve coming out of the Declaration of the Rights of Wetlands.

Nov 16, 2022

Sneak Peek! — End of Year Newsletter 2022: We are Nature

Human and ecosystem viability come when we figure out how to orient our culture to be connected to all four parts: Living from, with, in, and as Nature.

Wouldn’t You Say? – What Do We Mean by “Community Rights?”

Lakota advocate and water protector Debra White Plume (Wioweya Najin Wina), upon being introduced to the history of municipal subjugation in the United States during a Democracy School hosted by residents of the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, remarked that “municipalities are the white man’s reservations. The only difference is, we know we’re on reservations.”

Sep 28, 2022

Happy Anniversary Rights of Pachamama Ecuador!

We at CELDF want to recognize and celebrate the 14-year anniversary of this historic date when the country of Ecuador codified Rights of Pachamama into their national Constitution.

Read More | News, News from the Grassroots, Rights of Nature

Sep 12, 2022

Wouldn’t You Say? – Nature is What’s Real

You wouldn’t think, in a rational society, that anyone would have to be told this, but reality doesn’t care what anybody believes is true; it just is. And what isn’t, isn’t.

Read More | Blogs, Issues, News, News from the Grassroots, Rights of Nature

Jul 6, 2022

Truthout: Nature Isn’t a “Vault” Full of Material Value. It Is a Treasure to Be Valued.

CELDF’s Ben Price wrote this article, featured in Truthout, about a mining corporation’s scam plan, pushed as an environmentally friendly investment opportunity.

Read More | News, News from the Grassroots, Rights of Nature

Mar 16, 2022

Lucrative Losses & Poisonous Profits Symposium: An Overview of the Domestic and Global Exploitation of Nature and the Way Forward

CELDF’s Tish O’Dell is speaking on Panel #4, “Contamination of Water.” This Panel will take place on Friday, March 25 from 11:40 AM – 12:45 PM.

Terry Lodge, activist attorney with CELDF, is speaking on Panel #2, “Contamination of Land.” This panel will take place on Thursday, March 24 from 11:50 AM – 12:55 PM

American University Washington College of Law’s Program on Environmental and Energy Law and Sustainable Development Law & Policy Brief, in association with the Animal Law Society, Energy Law & Policy Society, Environmental Law Society, and Native American Law Students Association are excited to host this year’s annual Symposium, “Lucrative Losses & Poisonous Profits: An Overview of the Domestic and Global Exploitation of Nature and the Way Forward” over Zoom from 10 AM – 1 PM on March 24 and 25, 2022. Over the course of four panels—activists, professors, legal and policy experts, climate scientists, and professors will discuss the international and domestic contamination and overuse of water and land from modern environmental law, indigenous, and rights of nature perspectives. The panelists will explore the devastating impacts of some of nature’s biggest threats, including pollution, deforestation, and industrial fishing.

Mar 2, 2022

NYS Assemblyman Patrick Burke Introduces Great Lakes Bill of Rights

The bill paves the way for litigation against polluters on behalf of the ecosystem Press ReleaseThursday, February 24th, 2022 NYS Assemblymember Patrick B. Burke Office Contact: Brendan Keany, Communications Director716-608-6099 | keanyb@nyassembly.gov CELDF Contacts: Tish O’Dell, Organizer440-552-6774 tish@celdf.org Ben Price, Organizer717-254-3233 benprice@celdf.org Buffalo, NY – New York State Assemblyman Patrick Burke has introduced legislation… Read more »

CELDF’s Ongoing Commitment to Expanding Community Rights

“The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) is helping build a decolonial movement for Community Rights and the Rights of Nature to advance democratic, economic, social, and environmental rights – building upward from the grassroots to the state, federal, and international levels.”

Guest Blog: Community Rights in Buffalo, NY

Systems change doesn’t hinge on electing the right candidate – it’s advanced most forcefully when organized communities engage in direct action.

Conversation: United Church of Christ Becomes First Mainline Church Body to Declare Earth has Rights

The General Synod of the United Church of Christ has become the first mainline Protestant body to publicly proclaim that nature has rights.

Jul 15, 2021

Oregon Community Rights Activists Undeterred by Court’s Validation of Timber’s Toxic Legacy

The Court of Appeals of the State of Oregon issued a one-page decision in late June upholding a trial court decision overriding the will of voters and siding with corporate timber. The court has allowed for the continued use of aerially sprayed pesticides.

Announcing CELDF's Proposed Rights of Nature Principles

Sneak Peek! -- End of Year Newsletter 2022: We are Nature

New Book: ‘Death by Democracy’

Champion the Rights of Nature

The Rights of Nature & Self-Governance – San Andres Archipelago, Colombia

Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation Funds CELDF’s Work to Advance Rights to Local, Democratic Self-Governance and Rights of Nature

Griffith Journal of Law and Human Dignity: Finally Being Heard: the Great Barrier Reef and the International Rights of Nature Tribunal

CELDF in Otavalo, Ecuador, for a Rights of Nature conference.

CELDF partner in Rights of Nature work, Fundacion Pachamama, Shut Down by Ecuadorian Government

Noozhawk: Fracking and the Rights of Nature

Rights of Nature on the Santa Monica City Council Agenda

CELDF’s New Frontiers: Building a Grassroots Movement for Community Rights and the Rights of Nature

Dr. Stephen Cleghorn signed the 1st Rights of Nature based legal easement on his 52 acre organic farm in late 2012. Click here to view a stirring speech he gave in 2011, passionately taking a stand to stop fracking and protect the land.

United Nations Radio: Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature promotes its cause at Rio+20

CELDF’s Ben Price on Local Self Governance and Rights of Nature (Parts 1 through 3)

Pachamama Hosts Global Alliance for Rights of Nature in San Francisco

Pachamama Hosts Global Alliance for Rights of Nature in San Francisco

Press Release: Ecuador Approves New Constitution: Voters Approve Rights of Nature

Newsletter: Asheville Climate Bill of Rights Begins Signature Gathering

Podcast (Climate One): “Should Nature Have Rights?”

My Plainview: How giving legal rights to nature could help reduce toxic algae blooms in Lake Erie

Mother Jones: A New Wave of Environmentalists Want to Give Nature Legal Rights

Media Statement: Ohio Group Submits Signatures to Recognize Rights for Michindoh Aquifer

The Toledo Blade: Toledo water group collects signatures for “Lake Erie Bill of Rights” inclusion on Nov. ballot

The Guardian: Our laws make slaves of nature. It’s not just humans who need rights

Center for Humans & Nature: Does Fracking Violate Human Rights?

Akron Beacon Journal: Medina County group files 6,578 signatures seeking November vote on community bill of rights

Akron Beacon Journal: Portage County group seeking signatures on petition calling for community bill of rights vote

National Catholic Reporter: Nature’s rights gain some legal standing

Wired: Giving Nature Its Own Rights Might Avert Future Oil Disasters

Taking on Corporations and Giving Rights to Nature

Does Nature have Rights?

The New York Times: Ecuador Constitution Grants Rights to Nature

Radical Resilience and Restoration for Wetland Rights

Toledo voters approved a bill of rights for Lake Erie. A group wants the same for the Ohio River

Ohio River Rights Campaign Launched by Cincinnati Residents

The Myth of American Democracy: The Ruling Class Crusade Against Community & Nature

Guest Blog: We Must Overturn SCOTUS Decisions That Effectively Deny Rights to Black People

Community Conversation: Rights and Rites

Wouldn’t You Say? – Saving the Economy Means Not Saving Nature

Tumbled by the surf: Figuring out which wave to ride next for recognizing rights

Do No Harm: Protecting the Rights of Mangroves in Ecuador From Injury

Sneak Peek! — End of Year Newsletter 2022: We are Nature

Wouldn’t You Say? – What Do We Mean by “Community Rights?”

Happy Anniversary Rights of Pachamama Ecuador!

Wouldn’t You Say? – Nature is What’s Real

Truthout: Nature Isn’t a “Vault” Full of Material Value. It Is a Treasure to Be Valued.

Lucrative Losses & Poisonous Profits Symposium: An Overview of the Domestic and Global Exploitation of Nature and the Way Forward

NYS Assemblyman Patrick Burke Introduces Great Lakes Bill of Rights

CELDF’s Ongoing Commitment to Expanding Community Rights

Guest Blog: Community Rights in Buffalo, NY

Conversation: United Church of Christ Becomes First Mainline Church Body to Declare Earth has Rights

Oregon Community Rights Activists Undeterred by Court’s Validation of Timber’s Toxic Legacy

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