The rights of nature turn

With

Camille de Toledo A writer, artist and doctor of comparative literature, Camille de Toledo is the author of a number of essays mixing writing styles and genres, including autobiographical narratives and micro-fiction. His latest essay, Le fleuve qui voulait écrire (Ed. les liens qui libèrent, 2021), was shortlisted for the environmental book prize awarded by the Nouvel Observateur newspaper. He is currently a research associate at the Nantes Institute for advanced Studies.
 

Elizabeth Gallón Droste, artist and anthropologist. Her research focuses on territories and rivers that link up vast living networks. For her doctorate in anthropology at the Freie Universität Berlin, she wrote her thesis on the legal personality of the river Atrato. Since 2014, she has been part of various transdisciplinary learning processes and networks between the arts and sciences. She has produced several audiovisual and sound creations dealing with memory and socio-environmental conflicts, and collective actions for better living together. https://elizabethgallondroste.net/
 

Estefania Pabon is a young activist and founder of several groups working to defend the preservation and integrity of river basins and their inhabitants in Quito, Ecuador. More than 100 rivers and 16,000 people are affected. Her work lies at the crossroads of awareness-raising, environmental education and the legal battle for recognition of the rights of rivers and local communities.
 

Tish O'Dell, consulting director at the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund. Based in Ohio, Tish has been training and supporting local communities across the country and internationally since 2012. She recently helped the people of Toledo pass the first Colonial Lands Act in the United States recognizing the rights of a specific ecosystem. Her advocacy work on Lake Erie and the Great Lakes has been featured in Ecologist, TruthOut and Inside Climate News, as well as the documentaries We the People 2.0 and Invisible Hand. Tish lives on the traditional lands of the Iroquois Confederacy or Haudenosaunee (the Five Nations).
 

Kai Huschke, Executive Director of the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF). CELDF has been a pioneer in the rights of nature movement, challenging the legitimacy of corporate rights at the expense of local autonomy. Kai is a seasoned community organiser and movement specialist with 16 years' experience. He is a national speaker for CELDF's School of Democracy and a board member of the Oregon Community Rights Network and the Washington Community Rights Network. He teaches, presents, and writes extensively on movement building, community rights, rights of nature, and the intersection of culture and law.
 

Rory Smith, member of Te Kōpuka, the group mandated by the Te Awa Tupua legislation recognising the legal personality of the Whanganui River in New Zealand to define a river strategy on its behalf. Rory has over 30 years' experience of running two tourism businesses wholly related to the river, including an accommodation provider and a tour operator, both of which rely heavily on close relationships with the Iwi (Māori) of the Whanganui River.
 

Eduardo Salazar, a lawyer specialising in environmental law since 2000 and assistant professor of administrative law at the University of Murcia (Spain) since 2010. A member of the Environmental Law Worldwide Alliance since 2001, he is also an expert on the Aarhus Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters, signed on 25 June 1998 by thirty-nine States. He is also a member of the committee promoting the popular legislative initiative to recognise the legal personality and rights of the Mar Menor coastal lagoon in Murcia, Spain.

Marine Yzquierdo, environmental lawyer specialised in nature law and member of the Board of Directors of Notre Affaire à tous. She is co-responsible for the nature law commission at the Paris Bar and a member of the steering committee of the French Biodiversity Office. She is the author of several publications on the subject, including the book Les droits de la nature - Vers un nouveau paradigme de protection du vivant, Le Pommier, 2022.

Marie-Angèle Hermitte is an honorary research director at the CNRS and the EHESS. Her current areas of expertise cover the legal personality of elements of nature, biodiversity, indigenous peoples and communities of inhabitants. She is a pioneer of research in France on the rights of nature and has published numerous articles on the subject.