Signal Report names three legal personhood cases as firsts: Whanganui River, Ecuador, Mar Menor

Summary

In describing the international movement to recognise nature as a legal person or rights holder, the report cites three cases, each presented as a first. The first case the report cites is the Whanganui River in New Zealand, described as the first river in the world to gain legal personhood, in 2012 according to the report. The second is Ecuador, presented as the first country to enshrine the rights of nature in its constitution, with the report giving the year as 2021. The third is Spain's Mar Menor lagoon, described as the first such grant of rights by a European country, which according to the report received legal personhood as an ecosystem in 2021 together with rights to protection, conservation and restoration. The report explains that these cases illustrate a shift from nature as property towards an ecocentric model centred on intrinsic value and the right to exist.