In many countries nature has its own rights. The fact that European courts go other ways says a lot about their view of the world. Why it can be worthwhile to take this idea seriously here too.
from
Wolfgang Janisch, Karlsruhe
Before a European court they should have expected a brief, humorless rebuff. Three years ago representatives of indigenous communities in Guatemala filed a lawsuit against the destruction of their rivers and lakes by mining laws and agribusiness. They had a spiritual and cultural relationship with water, they argued, and water was a living being for them. It is represented by “Imox”, the protective spirit of rivers and lakes, the sea and rain. When their ancestors “talked to the mountains”, they went on to write, “then they also talked to the water”.