The Land that Owns Itself

Inspired by the work of Centre for Democratic and Environmental Rights (CDER) in the US, this project is focused on transforming nature from human property to self-ownership and self-governance, separate from human interference and control.

CDER has worked to address the systemic reasons for the climate and biodiversity crisis, focusing on how humankind governs itself toward nature, and how nature itself is treated under law – as a thing, a commodity, a resource, existing for human use. CDER’s co-founder, Thomas Linzey, wrote the first law in the world which transformed nature from being treated as a thing, to being recognized as a living entity with legal rights of its own.

This pioneering work has led to a seismic shift in environmental law – with communities, First Nations, Tribal Nations, courts, and even countries now recognizing nature as possessing legal rights – the highest form of legal protection in written law.

The Land That Owns Itself Project builds on this change, taking that next big systemic leap, such that nature is not only protected with legal rights, but is moved out from under human control and ownership, to become self-owned. and self-governed.

We will be adding more information to this page as we go. But as a good starting point click on the image below for further information on the work being done by CEDR in this space.