b'WATER AS PERSONHOODPhoto by Declan Keogh.The Originsof a Movement BY RILEY YESNOExploring the Rights of Nature movementE cuador broke legal groundStates and Colombia have taken stepsRights of Nature movement. At its heart is in 2008, doing somethingtoward recognizing the rights of rivers,a radical shift in perspective: from seeing no other country had doneforests and lands. Indigenous peoplesthe natural world as a commodity to be before. When it approved aoften lead these movements in the hopesexploited, to understanding it as a living new constitution, tucked among its mostof protecting their territories relative to which we all have obligations fundamental laws was a historic first: aand worldviews. to uphold.section titled The Rights of Nature. But how that recognition looks varies.Advocates say the movement isnt For the first time, the natural worldIn some instances, a specific mountain orjust about environmentalismits aboutknown in Ecuador as Pachamama body of water is made a legal person withchallenging the Western, colonial idea was recognized as a legal entity. Underdistinct rights; in others, courts definethat humans sit atop the natural order. Ecuadorian law, Pachamama has thethose rights on a case-by-case basis. InFor many Indigenous nations, that shift right to exist, to maintain and regeneratesome placeslike Lake Erie, near Toledoisnt new at all. Seeing the land, waters her life cycles and ecosystems, to bein the U.S.nature is granted enhancedand animals as kin has always been part of restored when harmed and more. legal standing without being called aour laws and lifeways. Legal personhood, The legal move sent ripples aroundperson at all. in this sense, is like a bridgeconnecting the world. Since then, countries fromRegardless of the approach, theseIndigenous beliefs to colonial courts in a New Zealand and Canada to the Unitedefforts fall under the same banner: thelanguage they can understand. 14l I ssue2 2025/26C hIefs ofo ntarIoA dvocAte magazIne'