• The eighth day of COP26, which opened on October 31 in Glasgow, should focus on the preservation of biodiversity.

  • 45 States, including the United Kingdom, should confirm, on this occasion, their commitment to take concrete measures and to invest urgently to protect nature.

  • For more than ten years, the legal question to protect ecosystems has arisen in many countries.

    In France, local initiatives are gradually being put in place.

"With its unprecedented promises, we will have a chance to end the long history of humanity as conqueror of nature, to become its guardian."

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson apparently wanted to set the tone on October 31 at the opening of COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland.

This Saturday, the eighth day of discussions should focus on the preservation of biodiversity, and 45 States, including the United Kingdom, should confirm, on this occasion, their commitment to take concrete measures and to invest urgently to protect the nature.

Because, if several countries in the world cleared for a little more than ten years the legal question to protect ecosystems, the attacks on nature continue inexorably.

"We see that legal action is sometimes hampered"

In France, for several years now, the term ecocide has appeared regularly in the political arena. And even in the Hemicycle. Without however succeeding in winning the favor of parliamentarians. So, inspired by pioneering countries, an idea made its way among defenders and environmental activists: what if, to save nature, it had to be elevated to the rank of a person, and to pass from an object of appropriation by man , to a legal subject? “We already have, in France and in Europe, a very substantial legislative apparatus to defend ecosystems. But which does not recognize rights and interests in natural entities, as is nevertheless the case for men and companies ”, explains the writer Camille de Toledo.

In 2019, the essayist and doctor of literature worked on the question of the legal personality of natural entities, through a series of fictitious hearings around the Loire.

The goal ?

The recognition of a legal personality of the river.

“We see that legal action is sometimes hampered.

And environmental defense associations will only be able to defend a tiny part of an ecosystem.

While giving rights and legal personality to ecosystems, we allow nature to defend itself against states that have not been good custodians, he says.

We thus rebalance the world legally, politically and pathologically ”.

An abortive attempt in 1990

Would raising the elements of nature to the rank of person ultimately be more effective than a global recognition of the rights of nature? On the other side of the Atlantic, the step has already been taken for more than ten years. In 2008, Ecuador was the first country to have incorporated the rights of nature into its Constitution. While, in the Pacific, the New Zealand Parliament granted the Whanganui River the status of a living entity in 2017. Thanks to this legal advance, measures to clean up the river and limit tourism, agricultural and industrial activities have been possible. put in place.

A first attempt to recognize the rights of nature had been initiated in France by Michel Serres and his

Natural Contract

, published in 1990, which proposed to elevate nature "to the rank of a subject of law". But strong criticism was then raised, arguing the impossibility of giving rights to objects, nature being considered as such in French law. And reproaching the philosopher for wanting to enslave man to nature and to play the game of

deep ecology

.

But all is not lost.

The Tavignanu, the second largest river in Corsica, threatened by a project to landfill household waste and asbestos, was given a bill of rights last July.

A first in France.

“If you follow history, New Zealand gave women the right to vote at the end of the 19th century.

It was then necessary to wait more than fifty years to have the same thing in France.

So when it comes to the rights of nature, it may take another fifty years for that to happen here.

But that would be a bit sad, ”admits Camille de Toledo.

Planet

In Corsica, the defenders of the Tavignanu river are fighting to obtain the status of legal personality

Politics

Marseille: indigenous peoples ask the World Congress for Nature to protect the Amazon

The river that wanted to write, the hearings of the Parliament of the Loire

, Camille de Toledo, Ed. The links that free.

In bookstores since September 8, 2021. 

  • 20 minutes video

  • Biodiversity

  • Planet

  • Nature

  • Global warming

  • Rights