Trend Rights of nature and a rising ecocentric worldview

Summary

The report sees growing international recognition of nature as a legal person or legal subject. More and more countries, regions and communities accept that nature is not merely an object but an entity with rights of its own. The report cites examples including the Whanganui River in New Zealand, Ecuador's constitutional recognition of the rights of nature, and Spain's Mar Menor lagoon, the first case in Europe to receive such rights. This movement reflects a shift from treating nature as property towards a more ecocentric model built on intrinsic value, the right to exist, regeneration and conservation. The report explains that it forms a counterweight to the anthropocentric worldview, which places humans at the centre and weighs nature by its usefulness to them, and that it also acknowledges the ways of life of indigenous peoples.