Valuing Kunanyi: will giving nature legal rights help to protect it?

Transcription

1 Valuing Kunanyi: will giving nature legal rights help to protect it? What happens when rivers have legal rights and legal personality? Dr Erin O Donnell

2 What is a legal person? An entity capable of bearing rights and duties Basically, a corporation (no human rights) Three types of legal rights

3 Why would nature need rights? Nature can go to court to protect it s own interests, not just those of people who use it Acquire and use land Acquire water rights to protect river flows

4 In 2017, four rivers became people Whanganui River, New Zealand (Dr Julia Talbot-Jones) Rio Atrato, Colombia (Dr Elizabeth Macpherson) Ganges and Yamuna rivers, India How has this affected management and protection of these special places? Could it happen in Australia?

5 Whanganui River, NZ

6 Many values, many impacts

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8 New legislation: Te Awa Tupua (Whanganui River Claims) Settlement Act 2017 A circuit-breaker: Treaty of Waitangi settlement negotiations Maori worldview: the river as an ancestor, guardianship: I am the river, the river is me River and its catchment now a legal person, Te Awa Tupua Implementation New management framework: guardians (Te Pou Tupua), $30m funding, advisory body Property rights: river bed, but not water

9 Rio Atrato, Colombia

10 Highly degraded, but home

11 Rio Atrato: Constitional Court decision The communities living along the banks of the Rio Atrato had the right to their culture and livelihoods, which depended on the river To protect human rights, it was necessary to protect the river s own biocultural rights Implementation Government working with NGOs to appoint guardians One man and one woman from each of 7 communities Representative from the Ministry of Environment

12 Ganges and Yamuna rivers, India State of Uttarakhand

13 Sacred, but highly polluted

14 Ganges: State High Court decision Ganges and Yamuna Rivers are legal persons/living entities with the status of a legal minor, and state government to act in loco parentis So... more like a child than a corporation? Basis for the decision: Religion sacred to Hindus half the Indian population Protection of the rivers from pollution and climate change impacts

15 What happened next? Murder of the Ganges River: too polluted to be alive State government of Uttarakhand appealed to the Supreme Court of India: What are the boundaries of the ruling? Can the government be sued if the river floods? Rivers in limbo: Supreme Court agreed to hear the appeal, and the previous ruling has been stayed

16 Can it happen in Australia? Sort of. Yarra River Protection (Wilip-gin Birrarung Murron) Act passed by the Victorian state government in 2017 First bilingual legislation in Victoria, centering Indigenous views of the river The river as a living, integrated entity A voice for the river: Birrarung Council

17 Indirect legal rights for nature in Australia Commonwealth environmental water holder

18 Environmental protection goes up The paradox of legal rights Rivers with legal rights can take more action to better protect their rights BUT People are less likely to want to protect them Environmental protection goes down

19 Big questions for legal rights for nature Can legal personality help transform our relationship with nature? Do legal rights make nature an equal, or merely a competitor? Does giving nature a voice mean we abdicate our responsibilities for looking after it? How do Indigenous communities maintain connection to Country if nature is a separate legal person?

20 How can legal rights help protect Kunanyi? Lessons from the rivers Connect people and place Strengthen cultural values Give legal rights force and effect: organisation, funding, and governance