A few years ago a friend sent me an article about women in San Jacinto, Mexico marrying trees to protect them from illegal logging. The subtext was that it seemed like something I would do. And I was inspired. A gesture reminiscent of protesters chaining themselves to trees slated for removal but with a tender intimacy, these tree weddings exceeded concepts of stewardship by entering a contract of kinship with the nonhuman world. While their vows were not legally binding, applying human rights to the non-human world is a tactical strategy for safeguarding planetary health. All over the world lawyers, activists, indigenous groups, artists and the concerned public are advocating for the rights of nature. The breadth and creativity of these cases range from the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe’s declaration of the rights of herring to the Democratic Republic of Congo’s declaration of ecocide as an international crime serving as precedents in legalizing material, ethical, and spiritual relationships to our ecosystems.
Ecological-Jurisprudence is a growing category of law that deviates from traditional anthropocentric legal structures and proposes new frameworks grounded in ecological systems. A movement away from classifying nature as a set of resources and property belonging to humans to an outlook where they are inherently valued as themselves. Legal terms provide a form of legitimization within mainstream judicial systems in conditions that states or governments can act upon. While some worry that through formalizing relationships to these natural bodies, it makes them more visible and therefore potentially vulnerable to extraction, there is a huge potential for these types of laws to actually prevent further damage to the-more-than-human world.
One of the most famous cases is the Te Awa Tupua (Whanganui River Claims Settlement) Act of 2017 where Maori-Legislative action reached a 98 Million dollar settlement for damages inflicted on the river and affirmed the spirit of the river. The ruling declared that the river is owned by no-one and that as a living entity it has judicially enforceable rights. Similar attempts were made for the river Ganges in India but enforcing waterways, especially ones that pass through many jurisdictions is one of the main obstacles to monitoring the treatment of these bodies. These global efforts are mapped by type and geolocation and progress status by the Eco Jurisprudence Monitor which serves as an archive and a resource for those interested in participating in this work.
Often the success of these actions are the result of indigenous led movements that reclaim state law to reflect culturally intrinsic concepts of selfhood of non-human nature. Among many communities and groups doing this work worldwide are the protectores de agua, an international and multi tribal group of water protectors safeguarding the Amazon water basin. Activist, lawyer, water protector Yaku Perez has been at the forefront of this conversation and actions in Ecuador, the first place to constitutionally recognize that nature has the right to “exist, flourish, and evolve.” Which is a milestone in the way contemporary governments situate themselves materially and spiritually.
Combining his experience of indigenous land relations with legal standards to make the Quechuan systems of relation legible, he has run for presidential office, leads radical rallies, and practices and advocates for Ecological-Jurisprudence. He started his political career after leading large scale protests against water exploitation by mining operations in Cuenca Ecuador. He was arrested during these protests but they led him to political prominence. He most recently ran for president 2023 under a platform Somos Agua, We Are Water and although he lost to current president Daniel Noboa, he remains a leader of strategic ecological actions. Within South America, Ecuador is a test site and a barometer for ecological action. A fertile land for oil extraction and deforestation there are nationwide efforts to prevent corporate destruction such as
I was interested in speaking with him because he unites disparate people and worldviews into a cohesive vision bridging practical action with spiritual reverence. In conversation with Yaku Perez we discussed his strategy, the benefits, and historical context of his work which is translated and excerpted below.
Lily Consuelo Saporta Tagiuri:
You are an activist, a water protector, a political leader but I want to make sure to describe you in the language you are using to self define. How would you introduce yourself?
Yaku Perez:
I am a water molecule in the immense cosmic ocean. I could consider myself a defender of water and of Pachamama [mother earth].
LT:
How does your background in law contribute to the way you engage in activism? Can you talk a little about how we can use legal structures that typically overlook or even exploit nature to the benefit of ecological systems?
YP:
Without my training, the battles won would not have been possible. The World Bank and the national government are seeking to deprive communities in Ecuador of their community water management rights. Thanks to the lawsuits, protection actions, non-compliance actions, and precautionary measures filed at the local, national, and international levels, we have managed to prevent the privatization and nationalization of water resources. These same actions have also prevented mining extraction in Rio Blanco, Kimsakocha, and Fierro Urco, as well as ensuring that rivers, forests, and sensitive areas are declared legally entitled. However, without complementing this [legal action] with social struggle, research, academia, and militant activism, extractivism could not have been stopped.
LT:
In your book you write:
Let us remember the Andean Law of Ayni: “We receive what we give, whether it be sadness or joy.”
Human beings are not separate from the creatures with whom we cohabit on the planet, including water, waterfalls, mountains, birds, butterflies, hummingbirds, rain, and rainbows. We cohabit together, we share the same womb, and we are interdependent.
How do indigenous concepts such as Ayni inform your political work?
YP:
The [Andean] philosophy of Chakana (cosmic bridge [a holistic view of the universe]) and among it one of the principles of ayni is fundamental to collective exchange (minka). It helps to enhance the actions under sumak kawsay [good living or social and ecological harmony] and the worldviews that maintain the epistemic relationship with practical ethics and politics.
LT:
There are a few examples of human rights being applied to natural resources such as the Whanganui River In New Zealand being granted legal personhood or the Atrato in Colombia. What do you think the next step should be for these initiatives and legal framework?
YP:
There are more than 30 cases in the world declaring the rights to Mother Nature. It all began with the 2008 constitution in Ecuador, then the first ruling in Ecuador in 2012 in Loja, then in Colombia, Zealand, Australia, India, USA, Canada, Chile, Peru, Bolivia, Panama, Spain, etc. They are powerful struggles that are gaining ground and establishing jurisprudence. Now the important next step is to declare ecocide the fifth crime in the declaration of the Universal Rights of Mother Nature. The road is hard but this is the challenge.
LT:
I am interested in how foods, crops, and land for indigenous farming is being encroached on and what strategies there are to safeguard.
YP:
The future is agroecology, but it is being devastated, and its knowledge stripped, (epistemicide) by large transnational corporations Monsanto Bayer, synGenta, etc. and the scientific community knows about the upcoming water and food crisis, which is why [individuals such as] Bill Gates and Elon Musk have joined the dispossession of lands and waters by multinationals such as Coca-Cola Pepsi, Nestle, etc.
LT:
Is there anything that has made you feel hopeful about protecting water, forests, or our ecosystems at large in the past few months? What are strategies happening on the ground, on the streets, and in the forests that you see working?
YP:
If humanity is a hope for nature, I deeply believe in the grandparents who already knew about spiritual intelligence, time and space quantum entanglement, the butterfly effect, in short, they sanctified Pachamama because they knew how colossal and kind she is and representative. And [they knew] that today the scientific community is confirming ancestral worldviews and I believe in young people who will soon unfreeze their hearts by returning to their natural irreverence for the changes and the paradigmatic shift towards biocentrism that homo sapiens needs if it does not want to be carried away by collective suicide, now and without pause.
