How are nature's rights established?

The first step in establishing nature’s rights is coming to understand how powerful and significant these protections are becoming in the global mo vement to preserve what’s left of our precious natural world. Any concerned citizen has the ability to introdu ce language to incorporate nature’s rights into their local governing documents. And this change has already begun...
In 2013, Earth Law Center helped Santa Monica become the first West Coast city to pass such a law, allowing citizens to serve as guardians of nature and enforce its inherent rights, shifting focus from progress and consumption to one that focuses instead on sustainability and coexistence with our natural world.
In the United States, some three-dozen cities and towns have passed laws recognizing nature’s rights and, in many cases, the related human right to a healthy environment. These new ordinances, declarations of self-governance and community Bills of Rights are establishing groundbreaking protections for natural systems, and the people living within them, as a direct response to corporate overreach and the abject failure of institutions that were established to protect nature.
commons law project.org_universal_covenant.pdf198.19 KB