COP16 was the sixteenth Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, which was drafted in 1992 and is currently guided by the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, adopted in 2022 ..read more

In this blog post, we investigate: What has led to the present moral crisis at hand? Why does the USFWS argue that the killing of barred owls is necessary and justified? And what is an Earth law perspective on this issue? to kill roughly half a million barred owls to protect a species that barred owls outcompete—the endangered spotted owl. Since then, the USFWS its strategy to manage the barred owls and plans to begin implementation as soon as of 2025. The plan to kill barred owls has sparked controversy, with proponents and opponents both advocating fiercely for their positions.  ..read more

(ELC), two organizations deeply committed to protecting the planet and upholding the rights and responsibilities of Indigenous Peoples, are collaboratively developing a long-term project on Inherent Relationships Jurisprudence. The collaboration seeks to explore the benefits, opportunities, and challenges of Traditional Indigenous Knowledge-based legal frameworks and the Rights of Mother Earth (or “Rights of Nature”), with a focus on legal applications by Indigenous Peoples and Nations ..read more

This blog post details these important developments and their significance for the international community. ) in the South Pacific Ocean, has recently spearheaded two major developments on the international level concerning the Rights of Nature and climate justice ..read more

As the world begins to reckon with the unsustainability of industrial agriculture, we are seeing growing interest in the possibility that the ecocentric farming breakthroughs the world needs are here now in the form of traditional Indigenous agricultural methods and their modern adaptations. Indeed, Indigenous communities have a more ecocentric approach to food sovereignty and agriculture than the dominant Western approach, which focuses on production volume rather than the long-term health of the land.  ..read more

While urban environmentalism is a core tenet of the ecological movement, my metropolitan notion of land protection was based on pictures and imaginings of distant imperiled landscapes. Earth Law Center is headquartered in Durango, Colorado, a town nestled under the shadow of the La Plata Mountains, mere minutes from the desert, with the Animas River flowing through the heart of downtown. Just days after arriving in Durango, I find myself in conversation for the first time with my long-time pen pal, Nature ..read more

Earth Law Center’s Latin America team drafts amicus curiae briefs on the Rights of Nature as a tool to cross-pollinate Latin American courts with the ecocentric perspectives of comparative law and supranational courts, an important step toward legal recognition of Nature’s intrinsic value ..read more

This post examines the history of the concepts “Sustainable Development” and “Harmony with Nature” at the United Nations, and argues that it is time to embrace the latter as a non-anthropocentric environmental ideal ..read more

Spain’s Mar Menor, the first ecosystem in Europe to receive legal personhood, has become involved in several court cases and faces challenges to the constitutionality of its standing ..read more

Since the entrance of the Balkans into the EU Energy Community in 2006, the EU has propelled nationalized incentives that have led to an incredible expansion of small hydroelectric power into the Balkans, and this birth of hydropower in the so-called “Blue Heart of Europe” has done immeasurable damage to some of the region’s last intact riparian ecosystems ..read more