The Cause
Nature keeps us alive. It filters our water, stabilises our climate, and sustains the food we eat. Yet under European law, it has no rights, it cannot be represented, and it cannot defend itself. Rights for Nature is the legal idea that changes that.
Companies have legal rights. Rivers do not. That is not a law of nature, it is a choice. And choices can be changed.
Stand up for nature
For too long, we’ve treated nature as property – something we own, use, and exploit. But nature isn’t just scenery or resources. It’s our life support system, our home, our partner in survival.
Across Europe, rivers are dying, forests are disappearing, and ecosystems are collapsing. The old legal frameworks aren’t enough because they treat nature as an object without a voice. But what if rivers could defend themselves in court? What if forests had legal representatives? What if the people who live alongside these ecosystems could stand up for them?
In Spain, 700,000 people gave the Mar Menor lagoon its own legal rights. In New Zealand, the Whanganui River is a legal person. In Ecuador, nature has constitutional rights.
Now it’s Europe’s turn. With one million signatures, we can demand that the EU recognize Rights for Nature – giving ecosystems legal personhood and empowering citizens to be their voice.
We are the citizens making this happen. Meet the movement.
Have questions about Rights for Nature or how the initiative works? Find the answers in our FAQ.
What are Rights for Nature?
The problem: nature has no legal standing
Europe has strong environmental laws. Yet ecosystems are still being degraded. Part of the reason is structural: under current law, nature has no legal standing of its own. It cannot be represented in court. When its health is at stake, the burden falls on public authorities — and enforcement depends on political will, institutional capacity, and clear lines of responsibility that do not always exist. Rights of Nature addresses the gap that regulations alone cannot close.
The idea: legal personhood for ecosystems
Rights of Nature gives ecosystems a legal identity of their own – the right to exist, to remain healthy, and to be restored when damaged. It is not a new concept in law: companies, trusts, and public institutions are all legal persons that can hold rights and be represented in court. Rights of Nature extends that same logic to the natural world. A designated guardian – a citizens’ committee, a public body, or a recognised organisation – can act on behalf of an ecosystem, just as a trustee acts on behalf of a beneficiary.
The shift: from managing harm to protecting life
Current environmental law asks: how much damage is permissible? Rights of Nature law asks: what does this ecosystem need in order to thrive? That change in question leads to a change in everything else – who can bring a case, what counts as harm, and what protection actually means in practice.
It's already happening
The Mar Menor lagoon in Murcia, Spain, is the first ecosystem in Europe to hold its own legal rights. In 2022, following a campaign backed by over 600,000 citizen signatures, the Spanish parliament recognised the lagoon as a legal entity with the right to exist, to be protected, and to be restored. The lagoon had suffered severe ecological collapse caused by agricultural runoff – a crisis that existing environmental law had failed to prevent. Its new legal status means that citizens can now take legal action on its behalf if its rights are violated. Mar Menor is proof that Rights of Nature can work in a European legal and democratic context.
In 2017, the Whanganui River in New Zealand became one of the first rivers in the world to be recognised as a legal person – a status it holds under the Te Awa Tupua Act. The recognition followed decades of advocacy by the Whanganui Iwi (Māori people), for whom the river is an ancestor: “I am the river, and the river is me.” The river is now represented by two permanent guardians – one appointed by the Māori community, one by the Crown – who act on its behalf in all legal matters. The model has become a reference point for Rights of Nature movements around the world.
Ecuador was the first country in the world to enshrine Rights of Nature in its national constitution, in 2008. The relevant articles – drafted with input from Indigenous communities who have long held relational rather than extractive relationships with the natural world – recognise that nature, or Pachamama, has the right to integral respect for its existence and for the maintenance and regeneration of its life cycles, structure, functions, and evolutionary processes. Those rights have since been invoked in court to halt destructive development projects and to protect river ecosystems from mining activity.
Why Europe, why now?
Europe’s ecosystems cannot wait
The Baltic Sea is one of the most polluted enclosed seas in the world — decades of agricultural runoff, industrial discharge, and overfishing have left vast dead zones where little can live. The Rhine, the Danube, and the Oder carry the chemical residue of a continent’s industry to the sea. The Mediterranean coastline is losing its biodiversity faster than scientists can document. Across Europe, freshwater species have declined by 81% since 1970.
These are not distant or abstract problems. They are the ecosystems that millions of Europeans depend on for drinking water, food, livelihoods, and the simple quality of a life lived in contact with the natural world. And they are being lost under laws that were designed to protect them.
The EU has the foundation and the gap
Europe has some of the world’s most ambitious environmental legislation: the Water Framework Directive, the Habitats Directive, the Birds Directive, the Nature Restoration Law. These are genuine achievements, and the Rights for Nature ECI does not seek to replace them. It seeks to go further.
The gap in EU environmental law is structural. All of these instruments regulate what humans may do to nature. None of them recognise nature as having interests of its own — interests that can be legally represented and enforced. Rights of Nature fills that gap. It does not contradict existing law; it gives it a stronger foundation.
The democratic moment
A European Citizens’ Initiative is one of the most direct democratic tools available at EU level. It allows citizens — not governments, not corporations, not lobbying organisations — to place a proposal formally before the European Commission. If one million people across at least seven member states sign, the Commission is legally required to respond.
The Rights of Nature movement across Europe has already demonstrated that this kind of mobilisation is possible. In Spain alone, over 600,000 people signed for the Mar Menor. Across our partner network, more than a million signatures have been collected for Rights of Nature in various national contexts. The capacity is there. The question is whether we can bring it together at the scale Europe requires.
Europe has always been capable of legal innovation when the moment demands it. This is that moment.
Who we are
We are European citizens uniting to give nature stronger legal protection through a European Citizens Initiative (ECI) for Rights of Nature. We draw inspiration from diverse sources, including Indigenous cultures worldwide and Europe’s own traditions of environmental reverence. We firmly believe that Rights of Nature strengthens human rights by securing the ecological foundation of human existence, especially as climate impacts intensify globally.
Across Europe, independent movements have recognised that establishing Rights of Nature represents a crucial turning point in our relationship with the natural world. By joining forces, we aim to implement a framework that offers hope for future generations to live in harmony with nature.
Belgium
Czech Republic
Germany
Ireland
Luxembourg
Netherlands
Poland
Portugal
Spain
Our funders
Rights for Nature is an independent campaign. We accept no corporate funding — our work is supported by foundations and individuals who share our commitment to a Europe where nature has legal standing.
We are grateful for the support of:
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Questions & Answers
It means treating rivers, forests, oceans, and other ecosystems as living entities with rights – not merely as property or resources to be managed. Those rights can include the right to exist, to stay healthy, to regenerate, and to be restored when damaged. Crucially, it means that citizens can go to court on behalf of an ecosystem, in the same way that lawyers can represent a company or a person who cannot speak for themselves.
Because the law has to evolve alongside the challenges we face. Climate change, biodiversity loss, and ecosystem collapse are not being reversed by the legal tools we currently have and that is not a coincidence. A law that treats a river as an object cannot protect it the way a law that treats it as a living entity can.
The idea may sound unfamiliar, but legal rights are regularly extended to entities that cannot speak for themselves. Companies have legal rights. Future generations are increasingly recognised in law. Indigenous legal traditions around the world and Europe’s own deep traditions of environmental reverence have long understood ecosystems as more than raw material.
When a forest is destroyed, it cannot appear in court. Rights for Nature would allow citizens to do so on its behalf. That is not a radical idea – it is a practical one.
A designated guardian or representative, appointed by law, in a similar way to how a trustee represents a person who cannot act for themselves. This could be a public body, a citizens’ committee, or an officially recognised advocacy organisation, depending on how the legislation is designed. Their role would be to monitor the health of the ecosystem, report damage, and bring legal action when its rights are being violated.
The model already exists in practice: in New Zealand, a board of guardians co-managed by the Māori community and the Crown represents the Whanganui River. In Spain, the Mar Menor has a legal commission that can act on its behalf.
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