6-4.1 SPONSORS: GPUS EcoAction Committee, Cochairs Mark Dunlea, Dawn Cronen
6-4.2 CONTACT: Lizzie Adams, lizzie@gpfl.org
6-4.3 SUBJECT/TITLE: Rights of Nature in U.S. Ecological Sustainability
6-4.4 TYPE OF PROPOSAL: GPUS Platform Revision (Addition) requiring majority vote
6-4.5 PROPOSAL TIMELINE: September 30, 2021 proposal due Platform Committee
6-4.6 BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE:
It is evident in conditions throughout the United States that our environmental regulatory system has failed to adequately protect our natural ecosystems upon which our health and lives depend. Permitting allowable amounts of pollution and damage has been a useful tool for corporate destruction of our environment. The regulatory system is not the only method at our disposal for protecting nature. Rights of Nature (RON) exists as a shared worldview and legal theory to understand and protect ecosystems and natural entities in countries around the globe and here in the United States.
Every U.S. resident has a right to clean water and a healthy environment. Flourishing natural systems nourish and sustain us. Our rivers, lakes, streams, springs and wetlands are the very lifeblood of our existence, our security and our future stability. Wetlands are of the utmost importance as productive systems that purify waters, control floods, provide storm protection, recharge groundwater, provide wildlife habitats, and purify our waters acting as natural filtration systems of pollution, making the environmental productivity of wetlands vital to all agricultural, residential, commercial, industrial and public uses in the United States.
The mission of the EcoAction Committee of the Green Party of the U.S. is to “protect and promote ecological wisdom and sustainability.” Rights of Nature embraces an indigenous philosophy of interdependent relations, an ecological wisdom needed more than ever in this heightened time of humankind’s delusion of our separation from nature. The GPUS platform does include a RON provision under Chapter III. Ecological Sustainability, Section N. International Environmental Policy, which states, “legal personhood to large swaths of wildlands like the Brazilian Amazon and Nile River, including rivers longer than 1,500 km and wildlands larger than 1,000,000 acres.” https://www.gp.org/ecological_sustainability. It logically follows that recognizing the rights of our domestic natural ecosystems is both correct and necessary to help safeguard a healthy future for all our communities, for our children and grandchildren. “We need to transform from the rights of corporations to the rights of nature. It’s going to take a lot to change the system,” urged Winona LaDuke, two-time Green Party vice presidential candidate, in her 2016 speech, “Native Rights and the Rights of Nature.” Inclusion of a U.S. Rights of Nature provision in our GPUS Platform is a vital component for a democratic ecological vision.
6-4.7 PROPOSAL: GPUS Platform Chapter III. Ecological Sustainability, add new section:
O. Rights of Nature
We support the adoption of local, state, and federal laws which recognize the legal rights of natural communities and ecosystems – including wetlands, streams, rivers, aquifers, and other water systems – to exist, flourish, regenerate, naturally evolve, and be restored. We support the inclusion in those laws of the ability of people and communities to file legal actions in the name of the affected natural community or ecosystem, and for courts to require restoration of the natural community or ecosystem back to its pre-damaged state.
6-4.8 IMPLEMENTATION TIMELINE:
October 11, 2021, RON presentation on GPUS EcoAction webinar by Lizzie Adams and Tom Goldtooth, Executive Director of Indigenous Environmental Network and Cofounder of the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature; September 29, 2021 RON Proposal submitted to Platform Committee; September 26, 2021, EcoAction RON proposal advanced; September 25, 2021, EcoAction meeting consensus on RON proposal; Sept. 21, 2021, Consultation with Senior Counsel, Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights; August 28, 2021 to present, EcoAction Monthly Meetings and listserv discussion of platform proposals including RON; July 28, 2021, GPFL Endorses RON FL5; May 29, 2021, Rights of Nature Presentation by Florida Rights of Nature (FRONN) Chair at GPFL State Convention; January 12, 2021, to present EcoAction ongoing discussion of Rights of Nature; Nov 21, 2020, RON presentation by FRONN Chair to Green Party of Duval County and Florida Greens; Nov 3, 2020, Orange County, FL RON Clean Water Amendment Passed.
6-4.9 REFERENCES:
- Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights centerforenvironmentalrights.org
- The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) https://celdf.org/rights-of-nature/
- Earth Law Center www.earthlawcenter.org
- Florida Rights of Nature Network https://fronn.org/
- Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature www.therightsofnature.org
- Rights of Nature video segments in GPUS EcoAction Climate webinar on Indigenous Peoples’ Day 2021 including RON Intro Slideshow at 3:22 and presentation at 8:30 by Tom Goldtooth, Executive Director of Indigenous Environmental Network and Cofounder of the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature https://youtu.be/ItDcUVhhLvM
Rights of Nature Proposal Slideshow