Rights of Nature is a legal theory based on the Native American belief that nature is alive.
A handful of Democratic representatives in the North Carolina General Assembly filed a House bill during this year’s legislative session that would give the Haw River legal status.
"We are giving nature rights," said Crystal Cavalier-Keck, an Indigenous activist and co-founder of Seven Directions of Service, an advocacy organization.
People just have forgotten that simple rule: That we are nature.Crystal Cavalier-Keck
"We are giving the rights and laws to that body of water, or that body of trees, to sue or go to court on behalf of something that is polluting or destroying it. Kind of like how corporations have rights."
Cavalier-Keck, along with her husband Jason Campos-Keck, is leading an educational campaign to teach people along the Haw River about Rights of Nature. Cavalier-Keck is a member of the Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation; Campos-Keck is a descendant of the Choctaw-Apache Tribe of Ebarb.
"Rights of Nature is a natural law. It's ... how the natural world works," said Cavalier-Keck. "We are born in water. When we die, we ... return to the earth. People just have forgotten that simple rule: That we are nature."
While more progressive municipalities such as Chapel Hill or Asheville might be more inclined to pass Rights of Nature as a local law, Cavalier-Keck is pushing for state action instead, to avoid any potential state-level backlash. Orange County, Florida passed a Rights of Nature local ordinance last year that was later overturned by a state law.
Cavalier-Keck says House Bill 795 is the first in the country to be introduced at a state level. She explains that the bill authorizes groups and individuals to sue on behalf of the Haw River.
"Of course, the river can't sue. It's a body of water. It's a spirit," said Cavalier-Keck. "Organizations will sue on behalf of it, speaking solely for the rights of the river."
Guilford County Representative Pricey Harrison, a Democrat and lead sponsor of the bill, admits the legislation is unprecedented.
"I know, being in the minority party, and this being a strong environmental bill, that there [is] very little chance [it's] going to move," said Harrison. "But I think once people start to get educated on the subject ... it becomes something that might get some traction down the road. I'm looking at the long game here."
Harrison argues that making the Haw River a legal entity will provide more holistic protections compared to already existing environmental laws, which she says fall short and are limited by specific standards.
"So one permit for one industry that meets the clean water standards of the state and the Clean Water Act might get a permit to discharge into the Haw River," said Harrison. "But [with Rights of Nature], you're looking at it more holistically. You can take into account the cumulative impacts and whether this is going to actually negatively impact the Haw River ecosystem."
The basic understanding here is that our environmental laws have failed.Thomas Linzey
In 2008, the country of Ecuador adopted Rights of Nature into its national constitution. Since then, several other countries around the world have followed suit, including New Zealand, Uganda and Bolivia.
In the United States, local municipalities in Colorado, Pennsylvania and Florida have also adopted this law. Notably, Pittsburgh enacted Rights of Nature in 2010 to prevent fracking within the city.
Thomas Linzey, senior legal counsel at the advocacy organization Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights, helped draft the bill that Harrison introduced.
Last year, he told KCRW's Good Food podcast that since Ecuador adopted Rights of Nature principles into its constitution, there's been about 60 enforcement cases brought under those provisions.
Linzey describes Rights of Nature as a new approach to protect the environment and to hold polluting companies more accountable.
"The basic understanding here is that our environmental laws have failed," said Linzey. "[Rights of Nature is a] transformation that's taking place between this Western system of law, which is really anchored in destruction of the planet, and a new system of law, which is really anchored in this Indigenous understanding of nature."
Linzey says the premise of the law is to see nature as an animated entity capable of holding rights — not just a thing.
Jason Campos-Keck, co-founder of Seven Directions of Service, says Indigenous culture has always seen nature as a living relative.
"In our languages, [we] always had a word that meant like Cousin River, or Brother Tree, or Auntie Moon," said Campos-Keck. "We've always held these things as spiritual relatives. We've always cared for these things as such. And so, the law is our loophole. I know the law is going to supersede our little belief, and our little culture, and our little community. And so be it. If the law does its job, it protects, it's a battle well worth being won."
