Rights of nature | Good News for Humankind

New Zealand mountain granted same legal rights as a person

By Peter Schulte / January 30, 2025 / Good news links

Taranaki Mounga, the second-highest mountain on New Zealand’s North Island, and its surrounding peaks have been granted legal personhood, becoming the country’s third natural feature to gain the same rights, duties, and protections as individuals. The mountain region is of considerable cultural significance to Taranaki Māori and its designation of legal personhood is a long-awaited acknowledgment of their relationship to it. The mountain will also now be solely referred to officially by its Māori name, laying to rest its former colonial name, Mount Egmont.

Ecuador’s coastal ecosystems have rights, constitutional court rules

By Peter Schulte / January 17, 2025 / Good news links

The Constitutional Court of Ecuador has determined that coastal marine ecosystems have rights of nature, including the right to “integral respect for its existence and for the maintenance and regeneration of its life cycles, structure, functions, and evolutionary processes,” per Chapter 7, Articles 71 to 74 in the country’s constitution. This is not the first time that Ecuador has established legal rights for nature. In fact, Ecuador was the first country in the world to establish that nature held legal rights, Earth.org reported.

Ecuador river is granted the right to not be polluted in historic court case

By Peter Schulte / July 8, 2024 / Good news links

An Ecuadorian court has ruled that pollution has violated the rights of the Machángara River, which runs through the capital of Quito. In some parts of Latin America and North America, inhabitants have constitutional rights to a clean environment, but Ecuador is one of the few countries that recognize the right of natural features not to be degraded or polluted.

Panama legally recognizes rights of nature

By Peter Schulte / March 23, 2022 / Good news links

The new law could have major implications for Panama’s land and energy development policies, which are now required to respect and protect the natural world’s new rights.