Literature Review

This paper reflects on leadership shown in Venda, Southern Africa to protect the lungs of the planet and draws out key themes on the way Indigenous wisdom — underpinned by a sense of the sacred and the profane – expressed in solidarity with nature - are vital for protecting forests. It explores indigenous wisdom on their kinship with organic and inorganic sacred totems (plants, animals and features of the landscape) which are protected through relationships that inform governance. The ongoing community of practice and related projects make a case for standing together to address climate change.

According to Kotzé & French, the Stockholm Conference has represented “a catalyst” in the development of present International Environmental Law (IEL).(2) The authors argue that the Declaration is profoundly embedded in a “masculinist ontology of anthropocentrism”,(3) and that underlying theory, or ethos, of the Conference was that the environment, belonging exclusively to humans, had to be protected solely for ensuring their well-being, prosperity and health.

This article discusses liberal arts college students’ perceptions of environmental and ecological justice. Complementing emerging studies of education that tackles human–environment relationships, this article discusses student assignments related to the debates in social/environmental and ecological justice written as part of the course ‘Environment and Development’. Student assignments are analysed with the aim of gauging their view on the environment and society, identifying reasoning patterns about the anthropocentrism–ecocentrism continuum. In conclusion, this article distills recommendations for the design of a university curriculum that can facilitate the development of a non-anthropocentric worldview.

With their deep ties to the land and reliance on fishing, hunting, and gathering, indigenous tribes are especially vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Now, native communities across North America are stepping up to adopt climate action plans to protect their way of life.

The Rights of Rivers organization has suggested to government officials across the globe to adopt the Universal Declaration on the Rights of Rivers, which guarantees rivers a number of fundamental rights: (1) the right to flow; (2) the right to exercise essential functions within its ecosystem; (3) the right to be free from pollution; (4) the right to feed and be fed by sustainable aquifers; (5) the right to native biodiversity; and several others.

Ecocentrism is an ethical worldview that recognizes the inherent value of all lifeforms and ecosystems themselves which are in turn to be considered morally (Washington, Taylor, Kopnina, Cryer, & Piccolo, 2017). It breaks from anthropocentrism, which places humans at the top of a value hierarchy, and instead proposes a more holistic worldview. Similarly, it goes further than biocentrism (which sees all living things as having moral value) because it attempts to look at the balance of ecosystems as a whole as a key aim.Examples of ecocentrism include Janism, a religion that embraces an ecocentric worldview, and deep concern for the climate change crisis based on a belief that it is upending the balance of the world ecosystem.

In this article, O'Donnell, Poelina, Pelizzon, and Clark acknowledge and explore the essential role of Indigenous ideologies in shaping the Rights of Nature. While recognition of Rights of Nature paradigms has increased in recent years, many trailblazing cases have been hindered by limited enforcement. The authors argue that analyzing Indigenous influences upon ecological jurisprudence will enhance the implementation of Rights of Nature in a global context. They begin by describing the historical origins of ecocentric law, noting the development of its two distinct forms: ‘existence rights’ and ‘legal personality’. To analyze the efficacy of current policy responses, the authors compare five recent cases of rivers and lakes in different countries that have received legal rights, including the Whanganui River in New Zealand and Lake Erie in the United States. They observe that cases with higher Indigenous engagement with colonial legal institutions result in more strategic, sustainable transformations that successfully reconcile the divide between Nature and culture. Finally, the authors discuss the case of the Mardoowarra/Martuwara/Fitzroy River in Australia, where Traditional Owners who act as legal guardians for the River play an active role in protecting the River’s right to life.

This article investigates the relationship between legal personality for nature and indigenous philosophies by comparing two cases: the Ecuadorian Constitution of 2008 and the 2014 Te Urewera Act of Aotearoa, New Zealand. Through these case studies, the article considers the nature of indigenous relations with the concept of rights of nature, arguing that this relation is primarily strategic, not genealogical. The article engages with the concept of legal personality and shows that it is not a direct translation of indigenous conceptions, but rather a potential straitjacket for indigenous emancipatory politics. The radical character of indigenous ontologies is not fully reflected in the concept of legal personality. Furthermore, the way in which rights are granted to the natural environment is an important part of the effect such rights might have on indigenous communities. Despite some affinities between rights of the environment and indigenous philosophies, overstating the connection might constrain the radical political and legal implications of indigenous thought.

Environment law can be looked upon from two perspectives- anthropocentric and ecocentric, The former is essentially human-centric, while the latter is nature-centric. The former gives prime importance to mankind, while the latter gives equal importance to all the components of nature. It is this difference in view, that this article aims to study.

Just one month after the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline in the United States, New Zealand passed legislation granting personhood to the Whanganui River, settling over a century of negotiations between the Maori people and New Zealand government. McDermond discusses the history of attempting to attain standing for natural resources, and Justice Douglas’ proposal of creating standing for environmental objects with the reasoning that ships or corporations are inanimate objects with standing that could be analogous to rivers, trees, or land. McDermond also focuses on the sacred relationship between Native Americans and land, specifically that they have always recognized that land has intrinsic value. When it comes to legally constructed personhood, standing is given to human persons and artificial persons like corporations. The American legal system has struggled with protecting land rights, and can look to New Zealand, which protects the Whanganui River as an “indivisible and living whole” with all the “rights, powers, duties, and liabilities of a legal person,” as a guide. Finally, McDermond analyzes the feasibility of enacting similar legislation in the United States, concluding that it is possible but requires great legislative specificity to avoid any ambiguity faced by courts in other countries with similar goals.

Rowe examines whether the Wisconsin Menominee Tribe could establish personhood for the Menominee River using New Zealand’s Whanganui River as a model. The agreement establishing legal personhood for the Whanganui River intends to reflect that indigenous peoples view the river as a living entity rather than property capable of being owned, enabling the river to have legal standing in its own right. The Menominee River is currently under threat from the construction of the Back Forty Mine, an open-pit-sulfide mine which risks contamination of watersheds and drinking water in the area. Because the Menominee signed multiple treaties with the U.S. government terminating their status as a federal tribe, it is increasingly difficult for them to protest multiple documents, ultimately meaning that the U.S. government has significantly more power than the tribe as a group. Rowe concludes that even if the Menominee received significant grassroots social and political support to establish rights for their river, similar to what occurred in New Zealand, protecting the river from the construction of the mine would be an arduous legal battle. The Menominee’s best chance at fighting the mine would be establishing guardianship rights to preserve the river, which would be an acknowledgement of past harms committed by treaty agreements between the tribe and the U.S. government.

Kowalski first discusses how indigenous approaches to law and nature differ from more modern “Western” approaches that view nature as property. For example, Australian indigenous groups would determine how certain ecosystems operate, then regulate human activities based on what would complement those processes, rather than implementing rules or statutes. Additionally, indigenous groups historically did not separate humanity from nature as most modern societies do, leading to the exploitation of natural resources. John Locke’s theories on property also led to the colonization of indigenous lands, where territory was seized from indigenous groups because it was believed they were not utilizing the land to its fullest economic capacity. Kowalski further discusses the United Nations Declarations on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the relationship between protecting indigenous rights and the management of land and resources. Currently, a majority of activism for indigenous rights and environmental protection comes from grassroots efforts against corporate or governmental intervention. Kowalski concludes that a critical aspect of environmental protection is the installation of indigenous concepts of environmentalism into law by granting rights and personhood to natural entities, using the Ecuadorian constitution and the personhood of New Zealand’s Whanganui River as models.