Lowri Davies

The Siena Declaration 2022

Succeeding the disastrous, irreversible impacts that humans have made upon our Earth, the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature (GARN) gathered in La Certosa di Pontignano, Siena, Italy during October 15-18 2022 to discuss the imperfections with modern environmental law, and to advocate for a diversion to an ecological based legal framework, separate from corporate legal rights and individualised property. Environmental law is in competition with these more powerful areas of the law. There have been efforts to recognise the legal rights of nature by countries including Bolivia, New Zealand, Bangladesh, Ecuador, Brazil, Colombia, etc. which have fuelled the ecocentric movement. The creation of a new social contract based around sustainable development will help to safeguard current generations, without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs as well.

La Certosa di Pontignano, Siena, Italy.

Background

A photo showing the damage caused by road work in Nature Park.

GARN is a global network of over 5,400 members consisting of organisations and individual activists committed to the recognition of the Rights of Nature and the transformation of the human relationship with nature. Since 2010, their mission has been to ensure an environmentally sustainable future for current and future generations, as well as the natural environment. They aim to do this through creating a jurisprudence that treats nature as a legal right bearing entity, rather than human property for exploitation.

The meeting in Siena, Italy, marked the first gathering following the pandemic regarding the Rights of Nature movement with 70 leaders from GARN, including a mixture of lawyers, economists, Indigenous leaders, and others, to ignite a united effort to reflect on their work to transform the law. The meeting helped to keep the movement on track across the globe, and to ensure a framework of action which can be mirrored in each jurisdiction.

General Assembly & Approval of GARN Constitution

On the final day of the gathering, GARN presented a three-year plan and global strategy which was developed during the gathering based on feedback and initiatives. The objectives are to solidify the outcomes of the meeting into a constitution which states the agreed plan of action and principles to aim for, which defeats the anthropocentric dogma that prevails.

Oslo Manifesto - June 2016

The "Oslo Manifesto" for Ecological Law and Governance in June 2016 exemplified the demand for a switch from environmental law to ecological law; based on ecocentrism, holism, and interspecies justice, which reverses the principle of human dominance over nature. The current laws and policies cannot stop the loss of biodiversity or the polluting of the natural elements, because they are grounded on the Anthropocene approach that the natural world is property or a corporate 'resource' for human desires.

Key Principles

The core principle of the Siena Declaration is to recognise the inherent rights of nature; their right to be, to flourish, to evolve, and to be restored, free of human destructive practices.

The goals articulated in the declaration were as stated:

• We gratefully acknowledge that Mother Earth is the source of life, nourishment and learning;
• We recall that we are all part of one living Earth community of interrelated and interdependent beings with a shared destiny;
• We embrace our biodiversity and cultural diversity and all forms of harmonious coexistence within Nature;
• We honour the wisdom of Indigenous Peoples, whose laws are drawn from their inherent relationship with Mother Earth, and we acknowledge the need to strengthen their perspectives within the Rights of Nature movement;
• We commit to advancing Indigenous rights, sovereignty and jurisprudence, and other non-rights-based pathways found in customary law and traditional Indigenous knowledge;
• We reject all forms of depredation, exploitation, abuse and contamination, and we urge real action to halt biodiversity loss, climate change, threats to Indigenous Peoples and Earth defenders, and other urgent threats to our living planet;
• We channel all our energies to the transformation of human governance - civil, cultural, economic, political, legal and social systems - to become Earth-centred, and to the adoption of the Universal Declaration of the Rights of Mother Earth (2010).

Impacts and Endorsements

Endangered arctic - starving polar bear - reflection of Climate Change.

The impact of the Siena gathering, as well as other GARN gatherings, spreads the recognition of a more 'biocentric' way of thinking about the benefits that nature provides, and a greater duty of care for the environment. It invites people to trust the natural resources that nature offers us and to not overstep boundaries which eventually become irreversible; reflected within climate change. As an earth, we tend to solve problems after they have occurred, but the Siena Declaration is a preventative measure which endeavours to spread the concern before it appears and worsens.

Case Studies and Examples

Location of the Ponca Tribe - Oklahoma.

Ponca Nation Tribe - Oklahoma

On the 6th July 2022, the Ponca Nation tribe of Oklahoma adopted a new statute for the rights of the Ní’skà, and Ni’ží’dè Rivers and other water bodies within their territory, recognising the "immutable Rights of Rivers". The Ponca pa'thata Women's Society will assume "their hereditary responsibility to serve as the guardians of the two rivers". A Ponca elder, known as Casey Camp Horinek, explained to Movement Rights that their law "is just another step in protecting the sacred waters which are the life sources of all things on Mother Earth, not just for our tribe. We have so much to learn from our waters, everything upstream impacts everything downstream, we are all connected". The Ponca Nation plans to hold gatherings with other Indigenous Tribes to promote an intertribal effort to protect the rivers.

Indigenous legal principles are reflected in the Siena Declaration, through focusing on the need of all people to think about Mother Earth with the same mentality as an indigenous person would; with respect and mutuality. The Siena Declaration is dedicated to ensure that governments and corporations do not allow the reversal of Indigenous efforts to protect the environment, through exploitation, contamination and abuse of natural resources.