Rights of Nature in Practice: A Case Study on the Impacts of the Colombian Atrato River Decision

Abstract

In recent years, several countries have adopted a new legal approach to address ecological damages by granting fundamental rights to non-human natural entities. Yet, little is known about the actual impacts of this new constitutionalism of nature on environmental protection. This article seeks to better understand these impacts by presenting a case study of the Colombian Atrato River decision. Based on implementation reports and qualitative interviews with the river’s legal guardians and state officials, it argues that rights of nature can be an important impetus for change. However, at least in Colombia, their impacts relate less to legal standing of natural entities, as presumed in the literature, but rather to improvements in policymaking. To transform complex ecological crises in weak governance areas, strengthening local state institutions and integral environmental policies are more important than rights of nature. But they can play a role in this regard.

The conflict between Rights of Nature and mining in Ecuador: Implications of the Los Cedros Cloud Forest case for biodiversity conservation

“…Furthermore, many regions with abundant biodiversity also face challenges related to poverty, with a significant portion of the population living in extreme poverty and lacking access to basic necessities. These areas often experience an absence of state presence and rely on an undiversified economy (Leifsen, 2017; Wesche, 2021). Opportunities do exist, and Ecuador does not lack in efforts to reimagine development (Kingsbury et al., 2019; Kocian et al., 2011; Larrea & Warnars, 2009); however, it will require concerted political will to remove the pressures of extractivism and provide space for much‐needed alternative development models built upon concepts of harmony that underpinned the emergence of the RoN.…”

What Do Chimeras Think About?

“…Some jurisdictions are reconsidering dogmatic exclusions to rights protections for non-human beings and entities or recognizing the rights of nature to balance our interests with sustaining essential ecoservices. 127 The (re) emergence of movements to reconnect human culture with the natural world make a case that it is necessary and therefore urgent to save planet Earth (for all our sakes). But they often fail to address the interests of other beings from outside of human-centric frameworks, especially when their capacities and needs are very different from "ours."…”

Courts, climate litigation and the evolution of earth system law

“…In 2017, Colombia's Constitutional Court ruled that the Atrato River possessed rights to protection, conservation, maintenance and restoration, and established joint guardianship arrangements shared between Indigenous communities and the national government ( Center for Social Justice Studies v Presidency of the Republic , 2016). The Court further ordered the government to consider the impacts of climate change when developing mining and energy policies (Wesche, 2021). In D.G.…”