The Rights of Nature movement makes gains world wide and right here in Buckingham County, Virginia. Below are 2 exciting articles about the latest river, the Klamath in California, to gain the protective rights of personhood, like humans and corporations enjoy.
Thomas Linzey, founder of the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, and the Community Rights and Rights of Nature movement, came to Buckingham on September 12 to continue our collaboration with him to create Rights of Nature conservation easements for 2 parcels of land. Kenda Hanuman and Heidi Dhivya Berthoud are the first 2 in Virginia to embark on this project. For a brief explanation of these easements, check this out:
Rights of Nature Easement description 9-19
For a 2 minute video of this project see: https://youtu.be/mmSQWy9RH8A
A couple of brief articles at CELDF site on conservation easements:
https://therightsofnature.org/rights-of-nature-through-conservation-easement/
https://celdf.org/championing-rights-of-nature-easement-in-eden/
Tribe Gives Personhood To Klamath River
September 29, 20198:02 AM ET
Heard on Weekend Edition Sunday
Yurok Tribe general counsel Amy Cordalis tells NPR’s Lulu Garcia-Navarro why the tribe granted personhood to the Klamath River.
Listen on National Public Radio
The Klamath River now has the legal rights of a person
A Yurok Tribe resolution allows cases to be brought on behalf of the river as a person in tribal court.
This summer, the Yurok Tribe declared rights of personhood for the Klamath River — likely the first to do so for a river in North America. A concept previously restricted to humans (and corporations), “rights of personhood” means, most simply, that an individual or entity has rights, and they’re now being extended to nonhumans. The Yurok’s resolution, passed by the tribal council in May, comes during another difficult season for the Klamath; over the past few years, low water flows have caused high rates of disease in salmon, and cancelled fishing seasons.
Read more at High Country News
Give Rivers Legal Rights
An ancient approach to protecting nature is being revived in hopes of getting natural resources—and the people who depend on them—the protection they’ve always deserved.
A few months ago, the Yurok Tribe in Oregon exercised its power as a sovereign nation and granted the Klamath River the rights of personhood. The Klamath, which runs through Oregon and deposits into the Pacific Ocean in California, has been subject to numerous attempts by energy companies to use its resources or install pipelines, such as the Jordan Cove Pipeline. In an attempt to protect the river and in response to destructive droughts that have affected the tribe’s salmon fishers, the Yurok Tribe sought to codify their ongoing attempts at revitalization by granting the river the same legal rights as a human. They followed this up with a lawsuit, joining with fishing groups to take on a recent proposalby the federal Bureau of Reclamation to reduce water levels—which would further harm crucial Coho salmon populations.
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