Rights of Nature in the post 2020 Global Biodiversity Framework
By Rachel Bustamante, Earth Law Center
Over 35 countries (either constitutionally, through legislation or courts and at various levels of government) already embrace Rights of Nature. The GBF has the opportunity to align with and support this growing global movement!
The Rights of Nature is an imaginative solution to our biodiversity crisis, wherein Nature is recognized as a living being and rights-bearing entity, and in practice helps:
Create an overarching norm or code of conduct for international environmental law that respects biodiversity alongside human interests;
Enhance biodiversity restoration while also strengthening the protection and fulfillment of human rights; and,
Reimagine ‘sustainable development’ to that of ecological sustainability: guiding development, economics, governance, and laws towards achieving the GBF shared 2050 Vision of humankind living in harmony with Nature.
Over 200 organizations and individuals across 40+ countries supported adding Rights of Nature into the GBF, following a report released by a coalition of groups led by Earth Law Center, Rights of Nature Sweden, and Rights of Mother Earth in August 2021. The recent OEWG 3 report indicates renewed support for Rights of Nature in bracketed text. At this OEWG 4, we implore your consideration and invite your efforts to include Rights of Nature (or Mother Earth) in the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF). Help us transform our relationship with Nature!
Text suggestions:
[rights-based approaches and Mother Earth centered actions] and [the rights of Mother Earth] in Targets 11 and 15.
[including cosmobiocentric approaches of living and those recognized by some cultures as Mother Earth] in Appendix 1:4.
Define “rights-based approaches” in the theory of change (para. 7) and enabling conditions (para. 17) by adding: “rights-based approaches, including the rights of Nature.”
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