This interview is reposted here with permission from Deceleration News. To read more of their coverage of WILD12 go to www.Deceleration.news
At the 12th World Wilderness Congress last week convened in the Black Hills, Hé Sapa in Lakota, Deceleration sat in on a panel concerning efforts underway to enshrine rights for nature, particularly from an Indigenous perspective. We later sat down with Britt Gondolfi, the panel’s moderator, and asked her help to unpack the possibilities of the rights of nature movement.
Gondolfi, the Rights of Nature Project Coordinator for the nonprofit Bioneers, puts the rights of nature conversation in historical perspective and offers a shout out to local organizing to protect migratory bird rookeries from the City of San Antonio’s zero tolerance stance on rookeries in city parks.
Legal rights for wild nature is increasingly being enshrined in the legal systems around the planet. Federal, state, and local governments—oftentimes led by Indigenous nations—are adopting protections for non-human species at a rapid clip. The momentum is such that some are working to ban the practice before legal claims are even made.
Rights of nature may be a novel concept for many, but it is part of a growing toolbox being accessed to protect the Earth and her many families, who together make humanity’s livelihood on the planet possible.