Epistemic Community of Practice on the Rights of Nature in Canada (Turtle Island)
About
The global Rights of Nature (RoN) movement, which acknowledges and advocates for nature's inherent rights, is rapidly gaining traction worldwide. In Canada (Turtle Island), scholars, scientists, experts, legal practitioners, and Indigenous Peoples are actively participating to the discussion and the direction of the movement, from the local to the international.
The RCEN Biodiversity Caucus is establishing the Rights of Nature Canada Hub. The Hub will bring together stakeholders, experts, knowledge holders, the public and rights-holders to advance RoN in Canada through dialogue, collaboration, and the sharing of best practices for action.
The Rights of Nature Community Hub operates on the basis of the following understanding of the Rights of Nature movement:
The movement to recognize various non-human relations, from animals to Mother Earth, as legal subjects rather than mere objects to be owned or resources to be exploited is rapidly gaining momentum globally under various guises including "Wild Law," animal rights, and legal personhood for rivers and ecosystems. Indigenous peoples and local communities are often at the forefront of this movement. The label "rights of nature" is often attached to this idea. The strength of this formulation is that it arises from ethical and legal concepts and practice that are well known and developed in now-dominant western cultures and engages them. At the same time, the movement transcends and, in some ways, challenges a "rights" paradigm. Another offered formulation is to talk about "respect for all relations". This engages the concepts of stance, of kinship, and of ecological connections.
Vision
To create a community of practice that will serve as a practical step towards the mainstreaming of the Rights of Nature within Canadian society as part of a transformative, whole-of-society approach to halting and reversing the key drivers of biodiversity loss and achieving life in harmony with nature by 2050.
Under the auspices of the RCEN Biodiversity Caucus, the RoN Community Hub will be overseen by the Caucus Co-Chairs, Dr. Rosalind Warner and Mr. Frédéric Perron-Welch.
The key objectives of the RoN Community Hub include:
Stakeholder and Rights-Holder Engagement: Identifying and engaging civil society across Canada.
Knowledge Dissemination: Securing avenues for the publication and dissemination of RoN-related knowledge.
Knowledge Management: Managing the community’s knowledge assets.
Exploring Additional Funding: Pursuing diverse funding sources to ensure sustainability of project.
This initiative could significantly enhance the RoN movement in Canada by deepening multi disciplinary collaboration among civil society - including scholars, legal practitioners, and Indigenous peoples - and creating a sustainable framework for ongoing dialogue and action. This community will serve as practical steps towards mainstreaming RoN in Canada as a part of a transformative, whole-of-society approach to halting and reversing biodiversity loss by 2030 and living in harmony with nature by 2050.
Our Reach
Members of the Epistemic Community of Practice on the Rights of Nature in Canada (Turtle Island) can be found across Canada. The map above showcase were some of our members are from. Our goal is to expand our reach.
If you would like to participate and learn more about the Rights of Nature Community Hub, please email biodiversity@rcen.ca.
For further information, please contact: biodiversity@rcen.ca