https://archive.ph/iLHNs
"With its thunderous rapids carving through a wild boreal forest in Quebec’s
Côte-Nord region, the Magpie River is well known to white water rafters from
around the globe. What these travelers may not know is that the Magpie recently
became the first river in Canada to be granted legal personhood.
The 120-mile-long waterway is sacred to the Innu First Nation, who call it
Mutuhekau Shipu. They’ve depended on it as a major highway, food source, and
natural pharmacy for centuries. But in recent years, the river has been
threatened by hydroelectric dam development, the negative environmental and
social effects of which often outweigh any renewable energy benefits.
To protect the natural landmark, the Innu Council of Ekuanitshit and the
Minganie Regional County Municipality declared the Mutuhekau Shipu a legal
person in 2021. Now the river has nine rights, among them the right to flow,
maintain biodiversity, be free from pollution, and to sue.
While this is a first in Canada, it’s part of a global, Indigenous-led campaign
echoing the rights of nature movement, which aims to provide concrete
protections for the natural landscape. In recent years, many rivers—from New
Zealand’s Whanganui to the United States’ Klamath River—have been given
personhood. In 2018, Colombia’s Supreme Court granted the Amazon—the world’s
largest river—legal rights."
Via Future Crunch May 16, 2022:
<
https://futurecrunch.com/good-news-poverty-vietnam-wind-texas-ocean-conservation/>
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
