Cases granting nature and ecosystems legal rights are increasing worldwide, but perceptions of the rights of nature movement as a revolutionary ecocentric movement are too simplistic, according to the authors of a recent study published in Environmental Research Communications. The study conducted an in-depth analysis of 78 peer-reviewed articles that focused on rights of nature case studies in Ecuador, India, New Zealand and the U.S. between 2012 and 2022. It identified nine patterns, among which were that environmental concerns were not the common driving force behind rights of nature (RoN) and that Indigenous peoples and local communities are not universally advocates of the legal rights framework — contrary to conventional perceptions. However, the interests of Indigenous and local communities are undoubtedly most affected by RoN, say the authors, and the rules surrounding the concept have created a space to question the way nature is used for short-term human gain when it lacks a platform to defend its own rights to exist. “Not all or almost any of the rights of nature can solely be linked to protecting the environment,” says Ilkhom Soliev, co-author of the study and head of the Department of Environmental Sociology at the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Germany. “It’s more of a social, power-related process that questions the rights and ownership to land, forest, water or fishing and who should be owning these rights.” The study’s findings supports those of other researchers, like one by Eden Kinkaid, from the geography department at the University of Arizona, U.S.,…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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