Research and visual experiments on Rights of Nature

(Group work by wanying, varada, kismat)

1 Historical context

The natural environment has historically always been seen as a property with resources to be exploited. In the 1970s, the theory of giving rights to nature was first proposed by the American legal scholar Christopher D. Stone. Only until 2008, was this theory put into practice and formally introduced into a legal system when Ecuadorians amended their constitution. In the Seventh Chapter, Pachamama (Mother Earth) was recognised as a legal entity.

2 Right of nature laws

The Rights of Nature movement is based on a guardianship model, meaning vulnerable non-human entities like rivers can be represented in court. On a planet that needs protecting more urgently than ever before, this new way of thinking (and acting) is gathering

3 RoN in Ecuador

The constitutional rights of nature in Ecuador are the first of their kind, and they are increasingly seen as a blueprint for granting rights to ecosystems, and to rivers specifically, elsewhere.

“Our Constitution of the Republic, without precedent in the history of humanity, recognises nature as a subject of rights. Article 71 affirms that: Nature, or Pachamama, where life is reproduced and occurs, has the right to integral respect for its existence and for the maintenance and regeneration of its life cycles, structure, functions, and evolutionary processes.”

4 Indigenous Communities

Rights of nature are being asserted most powerfully in post-colonial countries where there has been a tradition of indigenous communities having stewardship over the natural environments.

The Ecuadorian Constitution incorporates two main Indigenous concepts, Panchamama (translated as nature) and sumak kawsay (buen vivir or good living). However, beyond minor co-option of Indigenous traditions such as buen vivir and a few cases taking place within Indigenous territories, the relevance of Indigenous experiences have mostly been small in both advocacy and judgements.

This is reflected in the main actors driving Rights of Nature cases which are often international NGOs. Although indigenous communities have used Rights of Nature laws in the past, and are well versed in dealing with western concepts, this is a practice forced upon them by colonization.

Thinking about nature in terms of coloniality reveals why the way in which we approach nature influences far more than just environmental policy. Thinking about the meaning of nature is, in a sense, thinking about the meaning of being, insofar as defining nature involves making a determination about the status of all that is material, corporeal, and living.

5 Critiques

Some rights-of-nature sceptics argue that it simply can’t fit into western law, which upholds capitalism, property rights and extracting profit from the Earth’s resources.

The concept of RoN cases have affected the ways in which we understand and treat natural entities. There is a dynamic feedback loop between culture and law that can lead to a productive synthesis in which new ideas, concepts, and possibilities emerge.

The climate crisis is also a crisis of culture, and thus of the imagination. ––amitav ghosh, the great derangement: climate change and the unthinkable’……We cut nature up, organise it into concepts, and ascribe significance as we do, largely because we are parties to an agreement to organise it in this way—an agreement that holds throughout our speech community and is codified in the patterns of our language.

6 RoN in the context of GCD and Potential visual ideas

(1) Critique the culture-law, human-nature relationship through visual outcomes

To represent the intertwining relationships between human and nature, and culture and law, one potential idea would be to craft a physical weaving of the legislative text. Through printing the document and cutting sections to be interwoven, we hope to uncover new subtextual meanings.

(2) Document and represent the concept of RoN

Another potential idea would be to represent the legislative document in a visual manner whether it be playing with properties of the text in terms of colour, typeface, weight to represent the concept of Rights of Nature or disregarding the text entirely and representing the document through visuals alone.

(3) Models/projects to make RoN take effect (Long term)

Terra0 is an evolving prototype built on the Ethereum network that aims to provide automated ecosystem resilience frameworks….to create technologically- augmented ecosystems that are more resilient, and able to act within a predetermined set of rules in the economic sphere as agents in their own right.”