Green | April 11, 2011 | 9 comments

Bolivia Grants Equal Rights to Nature

Treehugger reports Boliva is set to pass the first laws granting equal rights to nature.

Boliva's laws will establish 11 new rights for nature, including:

the right to life and to exist; the right to continue vital cycles and processes free from human alteration; the right to pure water and clean air; the right to balance; the right not to be polluted; and the right to not have cellular structure modified or genetically altered.



Andean natives gather during a festival thanking Pachamama.

The law is rooted the idea of Pachamama, a deity viewed similarly to Mother Earth, as a source of life and fertility to the indigenous peoples of Bolivia.

It's not clear how the laws will be implemented, although a ministry of mother earth will be established in the Bolivian government.

  1. groups:
    Green,   Culture,   World News,   Odd News,   4 more
  2. tags:
    Nature,  Bolivia
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9 comments // Bolivia Grants Equal Rights to Nature

  • fernweher
    • +1
      fernweher  

    • As a Pagan, its especially beautiful that part of the government is being named "ministry of mother earth."
      As someone who supports full separation of church and state, I find this scary.

    • 1 year ago
  • remanns
  • ampersand
    • 0
      ampersand  

    • Amazing that Boliva--honestly the poorest country I've ever visited in the not so distant past--is leading the way in making the world saner.
      This makes so much more sense than institutionalizing the oddly eternal "personal rights" of psychotic corporations and the planetary rapists that hide behind that corporate veil.

    • 1 year ago
  • derk
    • +2
      derk  

    • My favorite is: the right to not be affected by mega-infrastructure and development projects that affect the balance of ecosystems and the local inhabitant communities.

    • 1 year ago
  • remanns
  • ejasun
    • +2
      ejasun  

    • We are connected with Bolivia - Keep the POSITIVE mental attitude and activities in the creative directions; Know that WE cannot live alone. Others are not only dependent upon US, you are dependent upon others - in every phase of our experience. For WE are a part of the whole experience, and you add to or detract, according to YOUR own attitude.

      We NEED LEADER'S with COMMON SENSE VALUES, LAWS, & TAXES!

    • 1 year ago
  • floydyboy
  • JanforGore
    • +5
      JanforGore  

    • Only through balance of the Earth and respect for her life sources can we hope to achieve such balance within ourselves. Our wanton destruction of the lungs , heart, and lifeblood of our planet without considering the real cost has rendered us destroyed as well. Only when these dots are connected with the understanding that the blood (water) that flows through her veins is also what flows through ours, her lungs (trees) breathe like ours and her skin (soil) is where life begins and must be respected will we be able to begin a new chapter in the preservation of our own species. Indigenous peoples possess this wisdom. It is time we listened to them.

    • 1 year ago
  • coolplanet
    • +2
      coolplanet  

    • I wasn't aware that Mother Earth is a minority.
      But seriously, this is a wonderful thing!
      People are realizing the Earth is alive.

    • 1 year ago
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