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rights of nature

The Colorado River Is This Tribe’s ‘Lifeblood,’ Now They Want To Give It the Same Legal Rights as a Person

The move by the Colorado River Indian Tribes in Arizona and California would give rights of nature to the water, marking a historic first.

By Alex Hager, KUNC

 The Colorado River flows near Parker, Ariz. The Colorado River Indian Tribes want to give the river the same legal rights as a person, taking millennia of cultural values and putting them into law. Credit: Alex Hager/KUNC
Princess Angelika Lātūfuipeka Tukuʻaho from the Kingdom of Tonga speaks at the One Ocean Science Congress on June 4 ahead of the U.N. Ocean Conference in Nice, France. Credit: Stephane Lesbats/Ifremer

Tonga Poised to Be the First Country to Recognize Rights of Whales

By Katie Surma
Mari Luz Canaquiri Murayari receives the Goldman Environmental Prize for her decades-long fight to protect the Marañón River in Peru. Credit: Goldman Environmental Prize

Rights of Nature Defender Wins Goldman Prize for Precedent-Setting Work Protecting an Imperiled River

By Katie Surma
A group of Adélie penguins hop around on a beach of Paulet Island on the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula. Credit: Wolfgang Kaehler/LightRocket via Getty Images

What Are the Rights of Nature?

By Katie Surma
Carola Rackete looks into the Majdanpek copper mine in East Serbia. The mine, run by the Chinese company Zijin, has been linked to large scale pollution, river alteration and deficient environmental impact studies. Credit: Courtesy of Carola Rackete

The European Politician Bringing Nature Into the Halls of Power

By Katie Surma
Judge Tom Goldtooth addresses the 6th International Rights of Nature Tribunal on Feb. 28 in Toronto, Canada. Goldtooth noted that people around the world are starting to reevaluate colonial legal systems. Credit: Courtesy of the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature

The Rights of Nature Become a Rallying Point Against an Ascendant Mining Industry

By Katie Surma
Fish and sharks swim around North Seymour Island in Ecuador’s Galapagos Islands on March 8, 2024. Credit: Ernesto Benavides/AFP via Getty Images

A Court Says Coastal Marine Ecosystems Have Intrinsic Value—and Legal Rights

By Katie Surma
A view of the Snohomish River Estuary near Everett, Wash. Credit: Wolfgang Kaehler/LightRocket via Getty Images

A River in Washington State Now Has Enforceable Legal Rights

By Katie Surma
An Adelie penguin is seen on Horseshoe Island in Antarctica on Feb. 14. Credit: Sebnem Coskun/Anadolu via Getty Images

Antarctica’s Fate Will Impact the World. Is It Time to Give The Region a Voice at Climate Talks?

By Katie Surma
Firefighters arrive to extinguish a wildfire on Sept. 24 in Concepcion, Bolivia. Credit: Rodrigo Urzagasti/AFP via Getty Images

Bolivia Has National Rights of Nature Laws. Why Haven’t They Been Enforced?

By Katie Surma
Environmental activists hold banners and chant slogans as they protest against the East African Crude Oil Pipeline Project on Aug. 26 in Kampala, Ugandan. Credit: Badru Katumba/AFP via Getty Images

In the Heart of Wall Street, Rights of Nature Activists Put the Fossil Fuel Era on Trial

By Katie Surma
A jaguar rescued from animal trafficking is seen at the Santa Cruz Foundation in Cundinamarca, Colombia. Credit: Juancho Torres/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

Jaguars, Macaws and Tropical Dry Forest Have a Right To Exist, a Colombian Court Is Told

By Katie Surma
Young people from Amazonian communities march during the Pan-Amazon Social Forum in Rurrenabaque, Bolivia on June 12. Credit: Katie Surma/Inside Climate News

To Save the Amazon, What if We Listened to Those Living Within It?

By Katie Surma
Natalia Greene, an Ecuadorian environmentalist and judge with the International Rights of Nature Tribunal, walks through the Chocó Andino cloud forest with her family in Mindo, Ecuador. Credit: Katie Surma

How the Drug War and Energy Transition Are Changing Ecuadorians’ Fight For The Rights of Nature

By Katie Surma
A view of the Barker Meadow Reservoir in Nederland, Colo. Currently, Nederland relies on water from the City of Boulder’s reservoir. Credit: Helen H. Richardson/The Denver Post

A Town Board in Colorado Repeals Rights of Nature Resolutions

By Katie Surma
Tish O'Dell, next to artist Andrea Bowers' "We Must Rise Above the Tides," in the Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland (MoCa). Credit: Katie Surma/Inside Climate News

‘Truth, Reckoning and Right Relationship’: A Rights of Nature Epiphany

By Katie Surma
Pollution from smelting and mining operations in La Oroya, Peru have made the Andean city one of the most contaminated places on Earth. Credit: Mitchell Gilbert/AIDA

International Court Issues First-Ever Decision Enforcing the Right to a Healthy Environment

By Katie Surma
Michael Lusk, a refuge manager for the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, surveys the edge of the federally protected swampland in Folkston, Ga., where a major new mining operation is preparing to break ground, raising concerns among longtime residents and environmentalists. Credit: Hyosub Shin/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Mining Fight on the Okefenokee Swamp’s Edge May Have Only Just Begun

By Drew Kann, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
An aerial view of Aruba’s Palm Beach. Credit: VWPICS/Jimmy Villalta/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

Aruba Embraces the Rights of Nature and a Human Right to a Clean Environment

By Katie Surma

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