You may remember that ‘The Future We Want’ was the theme of the Rio +20 Summit.

Disappointedly the majority of world leaders decided that our future lies on the continued commodificatiion of Nature as an economic service for humans.

However around the world communities and social movements are uniting to amplify the voice of Earth and all her children. They are calling for respect of Earth’s sacredness and of her rights to be, to flourish and to participate in the evolution of life.

Respect Our Sacred Earth

Recently Custodians of Sacred Natural Sites from Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda and South Africa met in Nanyuki, Kenya, to explore the deep meaning of our Sacred Earth and share their experiences of working with communities to revive their indigenous knowledge, practices and governance systems for protecting their Sacred Natural Sites. Sharing concerns of the growing threats to our Sacred Earth, the Custodians drafted a Statement of the Common African Customary Laws for the Protection of Sacred Sites, with support of partner organisations in the African Biodiversity Network.

This Statement provides important guidance on how Sacred Natural Sites should be recognised and respected as No-Go areas for any activity other than the expected spiritual practices. The Custodians remind us that: ‘Our generation living now has a responsibility like no other generation before us. Our capacity to stop the current addiction to money from destroying the very conditions of life and the health of our planet, will determine our children’s future.’

The Custodians invite you to share the Statement (next blog post) among your networks and especially with Custodians, so that people can understand about the deep meaning of Sacred Natural Sites and how they need to be respected as the living temples of indigenous cultures.

Respect Rights of Nature

The Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature and others amplified the voice of Nature at the Rio+20 Summit, and presented over 116,700 signatures (and fast increasing) from 113 nations and 189 organisations, to the UN General-Secretary Ban Ki-Moon.

Please do sign the petition to help reach the goal of 1 million signatures and watch the panel discussion on the Rights of Nature here.

During the Rio Summit a glimmer of hope was the recognition of the need to live in harmony with Nature and paragraph 39 of the formal Rio+20 The Future We Want document acknowledged that some counties recognise the Rights of Nature. The Universal Declaration for the Rights of Mother Earth was also officially signed by advocates for Earth Law.

The United Nations has now established a website on Living in Harmony with Nature.

Do keep promoting the voice of Earth and all her children and do share any updates with the group.

Many thanks
best wishes
Carine Nadal

Earth Jurisprudence Resource Centre Coordinator and legal researcher
The Gaia Foundation
6 Heathgate Place
Agincourt Road
London NW3 2NU
United Kingdom

Tel: +44 20 74280053
Fax: +44 20 74280056
www.gaiafoundation.org

To the children, to all the children,
to the children who swim beneath the waves
of the sea, to those who live in the soils of the earth, to the children of the flowers in the meadows
and the trees in the forest, to all those children
who roam over the land and the winged ones who fly with the winds, to the human children too,
that all the children may go together into the future in the full diversity of their regional communities.

Thomas Berry, 1914-2009

The Gaia Foundation is very pleased to be able to share “Reviving Our Culture, Mapping Our Future”, a short film produced in collaboration with our partners the Mupo Foundation and the African Biodiversity Network. Please visit vimeo.com/channels/gaia to watch.

From Carine Nadal

Earth Jurisprudence Resource Centre Coordinator and legal researcher
The Gaia Foundation
6 Heathgate Place
Agincourt Road
London NW3 2NU
United Kingdom

Tel: +44 20 74280053
Fax: +44 20 74280056
https://www.gaiafoundation.org

Dear All,

Good news to share – a report on rights of Nature by Global Exchange,
Council of Canadians and Fundacion Pachamama which highlights how we
are breaking the laws of Nature, offers positive legal precedents and
calls for a movement to practice a mutually enhancing presence on Earth.

For more information please see press release below…..

Do continue sharing your stories and materials which contribute to the
growing philosophy and practice of governance systems which complies
with the laws of the Earth for the benefit of the whole Earth
Community (aka Earth Jurisprudence/Earth law/Wild law/Community
Ecological Governance).

Happy reading, and warm wishes,
Carine
 

 
 For Immediate Release
 Contact: Jeff Conant, 998 165 7349 (UK phone number)
 
 We Fail to Respect Nature’s Rights at Our Own Peril, New Report Warns
 Report released at COP 16 offers paradigm shifting climate solutions
 
 December 6, 2010, Cancun, Mexico – As the COP16 climate talks
 entered their second week, three civil society groups released a
 report entitled, “Does Nature Have Rights: Transforming Grassroots
 Organizing to Protect the People and the Planet.” The report,
 compiled by Global Exchange, the Council of Canadians and Fundacion
 Pachamama, sheds light on “the Rights of Nature,” a paradigm-
 shifting approach to legislating resource use. Illuminating essays
 by Uruguayan author Eduardo Galeano, social and environmental
 activists Maude Barlow, Shannon Biggs, and others demonstrate the
 need to broaden legal frameworks to recognize ecological limits,
 natural laws, and the interdependency of all life.
 
 Out of a landmark gathering of social movements in Bolivia last
 April emerged the Cochabamba People’s Agreement, honoring the Rights
 of Nature; this document was later merged into the UNFCCC
 negotiating text. When the text was released to delegates at COP 16,
 however, all reference to Cochabamba had been removed.
 
 Shannon Biggs, Community Rights Director with Global Exchange,
 states, “The Rights of Nature offers a platform for action to
 challenge the market-based approach that dominates the UN COP
 process.”
  
  As the report outlines, “Entire human societies, our global economic
  system and indeed our structures of law, place humans not just apart
  from, but actually above nature. But what is climate change but
  Nature telling us we have lived beyond the limits of nature’s law?”
  
  This report calls for action from the community-level to the U.N.,
  and offers case studies of legal changes already underway in favor
  of the Rights of Nature. Last month, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania became
  the first major U.S. city to ban natural gas drilling while
  elevating community decision-making and the rights of nature over
  corporate ‘rights.’”
  
  While the number of communities taking this approach to ecosystem
  protection is growing, it is also being actively pursued at the
  national level. In 2008, Ecuador became the first nation to include
  the Rights of Nature in its Constitution.
  
  “As a country devastated by oil exploitation, industrial agriculture
  and international debt, Ecuador needs a bulwark against the
  corporate plunder of our natural riches. Recognizing the Rights of
  Nature in our national laws begins to provide that protection,” said
  Belen Paez of Fundacion Pachamama.
  
  “In order to survive, we need a change in the human relationship
  with the natural world from one of exploitation to one of democracy
  with other beings,” says Maude Barlow, national chairperson with the
  Council of Canadians, “If we are members of the earth’s community,
  then our rights must be balanced against those of plants, animals,
  rivers and ecosystems.”
  
  Copies of the report in English, “Does Nature Have Rights:
  Transforming Grassroots Organizing to Protect the People and the
  Planet” and a summarized version in Spanish, can be downloaded at:
https://www.globalexchange.org/doesnaturehaverights
  
  

  
  “Only after the last tree has been cut down, only after the last river
has been poisoned, only after the last fish has been caught, only then
will you find that money cannot be eaten.”  – As said by Chief White Cloud, USA, 1900

The Gaia Foundation is very pleased to be able to share "Reviving Our
Culture, Mapping Our Future", a short film produced in collaboration
with our partners the Mupo Foundation and the African Biodiversity
Network. Please visit https://vimeo.com/channels/gaia to watch.