Rights for Nature

by Norberto Rodriguez dela Vega

Something very special happened on September 29, 2008 when the people of Ecuador approved by referendum Rights for Nature in their Constitution. This is the first country in the world to grant inalienable rights to nature.

In Ecuador, Pachamama, Nature, is not an object, nor a commodity to exploit and abuse. Pachamama is madre tierra, Mother Earth; she has her own rights, the same as any other subject in their Constitution.

The Rights for Nature are based on three fundamental natural laws that are recognized in Ecuador and in the indigenous cultures of South America:

1. We belong to Earth.

This is exactly the opposite of western culture where we little humans think Earth belongs to us. For them, defending Earth is then a duty, a responsibility to be proud of.

2. All is related.

In Colombia, the U’wa people recognize oil as the blood of Earth, and the U’wa territory is the Earth’s heart. For the Kichwa culture in Ecuador, there is a myth that talks about a brotherhood bet-ween monkeys and humans. Another tale talks about the first Kichwa as related to the black panther. According to the indigenous cosmology, all creatures in Nature, humans included, share the same energy, samai, and this energy gives life to all creatures.

3. Life is sacred.

The Pachamama concept is very common in all indigenous cultures. It is not easy to fully understand, because it covers all aspects of life, from the spiritual to the material; it is the spiral that represents life and death. There is a total interdependency, and respect, between Earth and humans. Pachamama is life. Therefore, reverence for life becomes normal.

This marks a fundamental difference from our western culture, where everything in Nature has a market value. For the indigenous cultures, Pachamama is sacred, and therefore, not negotiable. In western culture, Nature is only something "out there," which provides many resources we utilize whatever and whenever we please, without any consideration, without any thinking of the consequences. Nature is simply there for us to use and abuse. Period.

In western culture we have all this knowledge, these technologies, yet we still fail to recognize these basic natural laws and by doing this we keep destroying life, without thinking that, ultimately, we are destroying ourselves.

The Approved Rights for Nature

Article Rights Entitlement. Persons and people have the fundamental rights guaranteed in this Constitution and in the international human rights instruments.

Nature is subject to those rights given by this Constitution and Law.

Chapter: Rights for Nature

Article 1. Nature or Pachamama, where life is reproduced and exists, has the right to exist, persist, maintain and regenerate its vital cycles, structure, functions and its processes in evolution.

Every person, people, community or nationality, will be able to demand the recognitions of rights for nature before the public organisms. The application and interpretation of these rights will follow the related principles established in the Constitution.

Article 2. Nature has the right to an integral restoration. This integral restoration is independent of the obligation on natural and juridical persons or the State to indemnify the people and the collectives that depend on the natural systems.

In the cases of severe or permanent environmental impact, including the ones caused by the exploitation on non-renewable natural resources, the State will establish the most efficient mechanisms for the restoration, and will adopt the adequate measures to eliminate or mitigate the harmful environmental consequences.

Article 3. The State will motivate natural and juridical persons as well as collectives to protect nature; it will promote respect towards all the elements that form an ecosystem.

Article 4. The State will apply precaution and restriction measures in all the activities that can lead to the extinction of species, the destruction of the ecosystems or the permanent alteration of the natural cycles.

The introduction of organisms and organic and inorganic material that can alter in a definitive way the national genetic patrimony is prohibited.

Article 5. The persons, people, communities and nationalities will have the right to benefit from the environment and form natural wealth that will allow wellbeing.

The environmental services cannot be appropriated; its production, provision, use and exploitation, will be regulated by the State.

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