Skip to content
Join our Newsletter

Comment: It’s time to recognize the rights of nature

I have been fortunate to have been a research fellow at the University of Victoria this semester, working on laws that recognize the rights of nature.

I have been fortunate to have been a research fellow at the University of Victoria this semester, working on laws that recognize the rights of nature.

Since I arrived from California to this stunning province, local residents, on hearing what I do, have been expressing their frustrations with government attempts to ignore or dismantle environmental laws. They describe proposed pipeline and tanker transport of enormous quantities of oil through pristine ecosystems and tell of mines leaching wastes to waterways. Northern Gateway, Kinder Morgan, Raven, Ajax and other extractive projects have become almost household words. There appears a growing sense of helplessness to stem these increasing threats to local well-being.

These concerns are familiar. Many communities in the United States face similar, unwanted threats from mining, hydrofracking, pipelines and other projects. Some have started to pass local laws — “ordinances” in the States, “bylaws” here — that ban unwanted, harmful activities and recognize the environment’s right to be healthy.

I’ve been working with one of these communities, Santa Monica, California, for the past two years. Residents there became alarmed by the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, which greatly expanded corporate powers. They were concerned corporations might attempt to override their Sustainable City Plan, and took action to pre-empt that with a Sustainability Rights Ordinance. The tenacity of Santa Monicans resulted last week in a unanimous city council vote approving the ordinance, making it the first in California to recognize the right of the environment to be healthy and the human right to a healthy environment.

The ordinance states that “natural communities and ecosystems possess fundamental and inalienable rights to exist and flourish,” and provides citizens with enforcement authority to protect those rights. It adds that Santa Monicans possess rights to “clean water from sustainable sources; marine waters safe for active and passive recreation; clean indoor and outdoor air; a sustainable food system that provides healthy, locally grown food; a sustainable climate that supports thriving human life and a flourishing biodiverse environment ... and a sustainable energy future based on renewable energy sources.”

With these provisions, Santa Monicans established their right to protect their city and sustainability goals against corporate entities with other plans. This is a growing movement worldwide. Over three dozen U.S. municipalities have pushed back on unwanted mining and other projects with laws protecting the rights of nature and people, and countries including Bolivia and Ecuador have incorporated such rights into their national laws.

How would this movement advance in Canada? Canada’s constitution delegates to the provinces the power to make laws regarding municipalities. B.C.’s Community Charter, Local Government Act and Vancouver Charter describe the scope of bylaws that can be passed and opportunities for citizen participation. Though municipal authority is circumscribed in some areas, B.C. municipalities can pass bylaws to prohibit or regulate activities that affect waterways or public health, or that create a nuisance. Municipalities in other provinces have related authorities to protect themselves against threats to their well-being.

Communities can also take proactive efforts to define well-being for themselves, as in Santa Monica. For example, Vancouver could pass bylaws to protect and implement its Greenest City 2020 Action Plan targets, which include: reducing the city’s ecological footprint, enhancing the local food system and setting protective drinking-water standards. Bylaw authority to protect waterways and public health could generate in law rights to thriving waterways, clean drinking water and healthy, locally grown food.

How do such efforts start? In Santa Monica, citizens volunteering for the city’s Task Force on the Environment heard public input, drafted a sample bylaw and supported it before the city council, which presented the final bylaw for public review and council vote. The process would not differ significantly in Canada. Citizens can express their views through local government committees, to elected officials directly, and through petitions for new bylaws — and they can elect sympathetic local leaders to advance their positions.

As the B.C. Community Charter explains, municipalities and city councils are “established and continued by the will of the residents” and must foster their “environmental well-being.” Each of us has the power to hold our governments accountable to their mandates. Municipal bylaws provide an important opportunity to exercise this civic responsibility in Canada.

Linda Sheehan is the executive director of Earth Law Center in California, and a visiting research fellow with the Centre for Global Studies at the University of Victoria.