In this time of unprecedented climate catastrophes and attacks on environmental justice from the Trump administration, it is challenging to envision what a healthy and sustainable future looks like for our communities and how we can get there.
Even amidst this uncertainty, fear, and destabilization, communities are finding ways to care for each other. Whether through mutual-aid networks, rebuilding rural communities abandoned by the government after natural disasters or strengthening food access through community gardens, people have always found, and will always continue to find, ways to reconnect and build trust and relationships with each other and the natural world.
The Rights of Nature movement builds bridges between humans, other species, and the natural resources we rely on to survive. It offers a transformative approach to environmental stewardship. The movement asserts that natural entities—rivers, forests, mountains—possess inherent rights to exist, thrive, and evolve independent of human interests. Advocates emphasize that recognizing these rights is essential for achieving true ecological sustainability and justice for all beings and communities.
Rights of Nature: Globally and in the U.S.
Globally, the Rights of Nature movement has been gaining traction in recent decades. As a movement rooted in the values, practices, and world-views held and employed by many Indigenous communities for thousands of years, the Rights of Nature framework has the potential to build bridges between Indigenous-led social movements and politically dominant legal frameworks.
In 2008, led by the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (Confederación de Nacionalidades Indígenas del Ecuador) in response to decades of natural resource exploitation in the Amazon and worsening environmental conditions, Ecuador became the first country in the world to enshrine principles of the Rights of Nature in its Constitution. Articles 71–74 acknowledge that ecosystems have the right to exist and flourish, empowering citizens to defend these rights on nature’s behalf. This legal framework has been instrumental in supporting indigenous-led social movements working to halt environmentally destructive projects, such as the proposed mining in the Los Cedros cloud forest. In New Zealand, the Whanganui River was recognized as a legal entity in 2017, reflecting the Māori worldview of the river as an ancestor and in 2022, Spain granted legal rights to the Mar Menor, Europe’s largest saltwater lagoon. This decision followed a citizen-led campaign that gathered over 640,000 signatures. These global models emphasize the importance of community and Indigenous leadership in crafting laws that reflect cultural values and ecological knowledge.
In the U.S., several states and many Indigenous Nations have used Rights of Nature principles and values as a tool to protect ecosystems and environmental resources.
In the states, Indigenous leadership and Tribal Nations continue to be at the forefront of this movement. The Yurok Tribe recognized the Klamath River’s rights to exist and flourish in their fight to win the largest dam removal in U.S. history, while the White Earth Band of Ojibwe in Minnesota granted rights to wild rice (manoomin), acknowledging its significance to their culture and ecosystem. In Alaska, the Tlingit and Haida peoples signed a historic agreement with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) in 2023 to co-steward the Mendenhall Glacier Recreation Area (MGRA) in alignment with their ancestral stewardship responsibilities for the land, waters, and wildlife.
In 2024, North Carolina held its first Indigenous-led Rights of Nature ethical tribunal on the Haw River vs. the Mountain Valley Pipeline case. Organizers stated the need for the tribunal was brought about “by the failure of the state to provide justice” and that they chose to seek justice through the tribunal “because it is the only way Indigenous voices will be heard without being shut down by the colonial government structure.”
Furthermore, in some states, Rights of Nature principles are beginning to be incorporated into existing legal and policy frameworks. In 2023, the Montana Supreme Court’s ruling Held v. Montana upheld the right to a clean and healthful environment, striking down laws that prohibited consideration of greenhouse gas emissions in environmental reviews. Additionally, California has woven some of the principles and values of the Rights of Nature movement into its “30 by 30″ initiative, which aims to conserve 30% of its land and coastal waters by 2030.
Rights of Nature: A Path Forward For Justice
The Rights of Nature movement is not just about climate and environmental justice, it is also deeply interconnected with reproductive rights, democracy, and sustainable agriculture, as all are grounded in the principle of self-determination and the right to a healthy, thriving existence.
- Reproductive Rights and Rights of Nature: Reproductive rights and Rights of Nature both challenge systems of control that treat bodies—whether human or ecological—as property to be managed for economic gain. Just as reproductive justice affirms the right of individuals to make decisions about their own bodies, Rights of Nature affirm the right of ecosystems to exist and evolve free from exploitation. When water, air, and soil are degraded, it disproportionately impacts communities of color, rural communities, persons capable of pregnancy, and children.
- Democracy and Rights of Nature: Traditional environmental law often sidelines communities in favor of corporate interests, permitting harm so long as it’s regulated. Rights of Nature flips that dynamic, giving communities the legal tools to say “no” to harmful projects and “yes” to alternative systems that support the environment, climate, and community. It strengthens local self-governance and environmental decision-making, restoring power to the people who are most impacted by environmental harm.
- Sustainable Agriculture and Rights of Nature: The agriculture industry often treats soil, water, and pollinators as expendable resources while flexing its power in state legislatures to push sustainable agriculture practices and solutions to the margins. The sustainable and regenerative agriculture movement aligns with the Rights of Nature movement that recognizes the soil, water, pollinators, and environment as living entities with the right to exist and be protected. This perspective supports farming systems rooted in ecological balance, healthy soils, biodiversity, and food sovereignty.
Ultimately, the Rights of Nature movement and framework is born of many Indigenous worldviews that emphasize shifting human activity from domination over to relationship with, and have been practiced by Indigenous, Black and brown communities for thousands of years and has the potential to be a key tool in uniting various issue movements around a framework rooted in shared values.
Resistance and Backlash
Despite these global and state advancements and the intersectional opportunities that the Rights of Nature framework provides progressive movements, it faces significant resistance with the rise of global authoritarianism and heightened vulnerability under the resurgence of anti-environment efforts in the second Trump Administration. Authoritarian governments prioritize deregulation, preempt local and state laws, criminalize advocacy and protect corporate interests at the expense of communities. Some of the threats to a Rights of Nature movement and environmental justice policy under a hostile U.S. federal administration include:
- Federal Preemption of Local and State Laws that could seek to override or invalidate state and local Rights of Nature laws, arguing that they conflict with federal commerce or property laws—especially in the context of fossil fuel infrastructure, water rights, and agriculture.
- Rollback of Environmental Protections through executive orders, targeting of “environmental justice” projects, refusal to enforce existing laws or further weakening foundational laws like the Clean Water Act, the Endangered Species Act, and the National Environmental Policy Act jeopardizing the already-limited tools environmental advocates and communities currently have.
- Criminalization of Protest and Local Control: The first Trump-era trend of criminalizing protest and targeting dissenters is almost guaranteed to expand in this second administration, directly targeting grassroots Rights of Nature initiatives and local decision-making power.
A recent example, at a 2024 UN debate, the UK government rejected the concept that nature has rights, asserting that rights can only be held by “legal entities with a legal personality.” Advocates and communities criticized this stance for disregarding Indigenous perspectives while simultaneously affording corporations with a semblance of legal personhood.
Despite these threats, state legislators could work in close collaboration with Indigenous leaders and frontline communities to champion policies rooted in a Rights of Nature framework as a bold and necessary response to today’s ecological crises. By recognizing that ecosystems possess inherent rights to exist, regenerate, and flourish, legislators can lead a paradigm shift within our governance systems to move beyond regulatory frameworks that claim to mitigate, but ultimately permit, environmental harm and towards laws that actually prevent harmful impacts. This approach also empowers communities to defend local ecosystems, restoring democratic control over environmental decision-making and proactively moving communities from a defensive stance and towards a restorative and future-oriented approach.
In the first example of a Rights of Nature bill in a state legislature, New York state legislators working in collaboration with Indigenous leaders of the Ramapo Munsee Lenape Nation, whose ancestral homelands lay in the Hudson Valley, have proposed the Great Lakes and State Waters Bill of Rights (A5156A). Introduced by Assemblymember Patrick Burke, the bill seeks to recognize the legal rights of all water bodies within the state and aims to empower municipalities and counties to enact Rights of Nature laws for their local ecosystems. The bill builds off of the work of the Ramapo Munsee Lenape Nation to draft a Rights of Nature resolution for the city of Kingston in 2023. The resolution which called for a ‘bill of rights’ for the Hudson River, unanimously passed. By granting legal personhood to water bodies, the state bill, A5156A, takes the Kingston resolution further, and would allow these natural entities such as the Hudson River to be represented in court. The bill also includes provisions to protect treaty rights for Indigenous peoples and tribal nations in New York, acknowledging their vital historic and ongoing role in environmental stewardship.
How State Legislators Can Work With Impacted Communities and Tribal Nations to Build Power Using a Rights of Nature Framework:
- Work in Collaboration with Indigenous Communities to Strengthen Tribal Sovereignty: Many Tribal Nations are already leading on the Rights of Nature movement and have been employing the foundational principles and values of the movement for thousands of years. State legislators can help strengthen Indigenous sovereignty and environmental justice by forming partnerships with tribes, recognizing tribal laws, and co-developing policy that reflects Indigenous knowledge and legal frameworks. Partnering with Indigenous nations provides opportunities to amplify Indigenous legal authority and center Indigenous sovereignty.
- Introduce Resolutions and Model Legislation: Even if a full Rights of Nature bill isn’t immediately feasible, legislators can start with resolutions that declare support for the concept, commission studies, or call for public hearings. They can draw on existing model legislation and Indigenous-led organizing efforts from Ecuador, New Zealand, and Indigenous governments in the U.S.
- Enshrine Rights of Nature in State Constitutions: Legislators can consider working to embed the rights of ecosystems directly into state constitutions, which are harder to overturn and preempt. In the process, they affirm the sovereign right of states and community self-determination.
- Pass Local Preemption Shields: Legislators can introduce laws that prohibit state-level or federal preemption of local Rights of Nature ordinances. These policies protect home rule authority and affirm the right of municipalities to enact stronger environmental protections than the state or federal baseline.
- Use State Environmental Justice Frameworks: Rather than start from scratch, legislators can embed Rights of Nature language into proposed or existing water protection acts, soil conservation bills, climate justice frameworks, or sustainable agriculture policy. Where environmental justice offices or statutes already exist, legislators can expand their scope to include Rights of Nature principles.
- Build Broad Coalitions and Public Campaigns: When it comes to the Rights of Nature movement, Legislators should be leading in partnership with Indigenous leaders, grassroots organizations, scientists, farmers, rural communities, and climate advocates to amplify efforts at the state level and co-develop solutions. Hosting listening sessions with rural constituents and local environmental leaders on their current concerns also helps build trusting relationships.
- Interrogate Existing Environmental Policy: Legislators can use their oversight power to investigate how existing environmental laws fail to prevent harm to rural communities, Tribal Nations and the environment. These hearings can spotlight the need for a paradigm shift toward Rights of Nature and create pressure for change.
- Codify Community Enforcement Mechanisms: Empowering communities and individuals with legal standing to defend the rights of nature strengthens democratic accountability. This can include citizen enforcement clauses, community review boards, and participatory environmental decision-making.
Rights of Nature is not only a legal strategy—it is a movement that challenges systems of power and domination. While federal hostility towards environmental protection and climate efforts escalates, state legislators have a unique opportunity and responsibility to protect the sacred relationships between people and place. By grounding policy in justice, community sovereignty, and ecological interdependence, states can become strongholds of resistance in the face of federal attacks.
The Rights of Nature movement represents a profound shift in how societies interact with the natural world and other non-human species. Embracing this paradigm shift offers an alternative path towards a more sustainable and equitable future for all living beings.
If you are a state legislator interested in working on Rights of Nature and climate justice please reach out to [email protected]