Exploring Environmental Law, Activism, and the Rights of Nature

So far, the Green Party is the only party with Rights of Nature laws mentioned in their party manifesto. Our hope is that political candidates from other parties might also begin to support the idea that there is a need to change our whole legal system to restore and benefit Nature. Stopping the destruction of the natural world is vitally important, yet current proposals do not go far enough. Last weekend, on Saturday 22nd June, over 60,000 people marched in London to demand: Restore Nature Now.

The Rights of Nature (RoN) movement in the UK has been newly revitalised over recent years. There was an early flurry of activity around 2005-2010, clustered around the UK Environmental Law Association (UKELA), which included some conferences, an excellent research report analysing the extent to which Wild Law already existed around the world, and annual Wild Law weekends (which continue!).

The festival is three days of discussions about converting radical ideas into practical action, around the focus of our relationship with the rest of nature. Presented by House of Hackney, it's a festival of ideas and coming together of passionate advocates for the regeneration of Nature for the quality of life of all future generations.

Paul Powlesland tells the tragic story of Hoad’s Wood, used as a landfill and ignored by authorities, and how it shows we need Rights of Nature and guardianship.

Paul Powlesland, barrister and Rights of Nature campaigner who acted for Sheffield activists, proposes that trees should have Rights of Nature and Guardianship and that Sheffield is a great place to try out this model.

The dictionary definition of Nature lags behind the new scientific and cultural consensus – that humans are part of Nature, not separate from it. We want to change that.

Last November, the European Parliament reached provisional agreement in favour of the new Environmental Crime Directive (‘the Directive’) which criminalises environmental damage ‘comparable to ecocide.’

LFN’s Alex May reflects on developments in relation to business and nature, in light of the recently published Opinion on Nature-related risks and directors’ duties under the law of England and Wales.

What happens when a 200 year old oak tree takes the Secretary of State for Climate and Ecological Breakdown to court?