Exploring Environmental Law, Activism, and the Rights of Nature

At 8.15am on Monday 20th November, the music and chatter of community radio stations across the UK will quieten, and give way to the sweet sound of birdsong.

We are proud to announce the release of a new research report, ‘Realising Rights of Nature: Understanding the Variety of Legal Instruments’, written by LFN Researcher Alex May.

With the end of the summer, we thought we would update you on some of what we have been up to so far this year.

LFN Researcher Alex May had a great time attending the Environmental Rights Centre for Scotland's Environmental Rights Summit yesterday. He delivered a workshop about what Rights of Nature are, developments around the world, and how we might advance them in the UK.

It felt very special to weave together powerful campaigns, community-led solutions, water meditation, song and ideas generation around system and consciousness shift at the #LCAW2023 event, "A Circle of Perspectives towards restorative and multispecies justice", organised and facilitated by Louise Romain (Circle of Voices), on behalf of the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature with the participation of speakers from War on Want, PRALER (Planet Repairs Action Learning Educational Revolution).

When an idea is shown to have repeatedly failed, at what point are we allowed to ask for something different? By most popular environmental metrics, whether it be river water quality, biodiversity loss, urban tree cover, woodland diversity, air quality etc, the steady decline in the UK’s natural world is an indictment of existing approaches to the management and protection of the environment. Combine this with the increasing urgency of the global environmental crisis and it is easy to understand and even share in the growing frustration across the country. River Action. Just Stop Oil. Extinction Rebellion.

Our rivers are in crisis. Every single river in England is polluted beyond legal limits. Our wildlife is disappearing, and our rivers are not fit to swim in.

Lawyers for Nature is primarily a volunteer-based organisation, however recently, we gratefully received funding which allows us to focus on our Rights of Nature and Nature-based Corporate Governance objectives. It’s a very exciting time for the organisation as we seek to progress these cutting-edge legal fields. It also means that we’re hiring for a Research Assistant with an interest in Lawyers for Nature, our mission, and this new fully-funded workstream.