What Can Environmental Peacebuilding Learn from the Rights of Nature Movement?

Stephanie Martinez, University of California-Irvine (United States)

What opportunities does the Rights of Nature movement provide for environmental peacebuilding? Scholarship on the diverse understandings of nature in an environmental peacebuilding context have identified a gap at this nexus, limiting action towards social-ecological repair and sustainable peace. The Rights of Nature (RON) movement, the most recent manifestation of a longstanding discussion of natural entities as rightsholders, has gained significant momentum since the mid 2000s with historic rights won for nature in Ecuador and Aotearoa New Zealand. Arguments to acknowledge a river, a mountain, a plant species, or an ecosystem as a rightsbearer inherently pushes actors and institutions to engage with multiple worldviews. Through a literature review and an analysis of a global dataset created by Eco Jurisprudence Monitor, I will investigate what relationships have been identified at the intersection of RON and environmental peacebuilding, and what the field might learn from successful, unsuccessful, and ongoing cases.