Rights of Nature for Land Owners: Partnership with the land

For a long time land ownership has been defined as control and dominance. Can the Rights of Nature approach open up for a new perspective on ownership, as a special kind of relationship with the land, built on partnership and respect? Do we need to replace the term “ownership” with a new word? This interactive workshop is focused on what Rights of Nature might mean for landowners in practical
terms. We will explore ways to relate to the land, such as permaculture and ecoforestry, that manifest a respect for the Rights of Nature. As participant you will be a part of a group thinking about how Rights of Nature can be put in practice, in relationship to the land. Henrik Hallgren leads the workshop together with Mikael Karlsson. They will present an initiative for certification of land based on a rights of nature approach.

Songs of the Earth - Ecopedagogy in Action

Earth Rights Activism is about liberating ourselves as co-creators of a sustainable, planetary culture of peace – the Great Learning of our times. As we explore how to give our ecosystems a voice through rights of nature, we also learn to make our own voices heard as Earth Ambassadors – carriers of a new vision and story about a peaceful relationship between humans and nature. Using different creative expressions to give voice to this story, is a powerful and meaningful kind of activism. In this workshop we explore how to co-create a ”learning ecosystem” of songs, sounds and rhythms. A common story colored by our unique individual contributions. We will discover that making a difference is not only fulfilling, it is fun, healthy and adventurous. Led by Niklas Högberg and Peder Karlsson.

Earth Rights, Sápmi and Indigenous Leadership - Next Steps

How can indigenous people lead the way to a sustainable future for all, through rights of nature? Indigenous people around the world are discovering earth rights as a way of explaining their worldview, in a way which can be understood in a western context. One milestone in this is the decision in the Sámi Parliament to stand behind The Universal Declaration of the Rights of Mother Earth. In this seminar, a panel consisting of members from the Sámi people as well as indigenous cultures in North America and New Zealand, will explore and discuss how to take a next step when it comes to indigenous leadership for Earth Rights – in partnership and collaboration with the global Earth Rights movement. Participants: Stefan Mikaelsson, former chairman of the Sámi Parliament, Sara Ajnnak, Sámi artist and activist, Tom Goldtooth, Executive Director of the Indigenous Environment Network, and Nikolas Berg from the Swedish Rights of Nature Network.

Evolving Law of Ocean Rights and Responsibilities - Indigenous and Canadian Examples

This workshop, led by Linda Nowlan and Georgia Lloyd-Smith, will discuss rights of nature through the lens of the 75 highly endangered southern resident killer whales who live in the Salish Sea. Current laws have not saved these whales. Respecting nature’s rights may change the balance. We will explore synergies between Indigenous legal traditions and rights of nature in this interactive workshop and discuss: How would we treat our oceans and whales if we saw them as rights holders? How would our actions change if oceans and whales were granted legal rights? What can Indigenous legal traditions teach us about how to live in good relationships with the ocean and its inhabitants? We will present examples from the Pacific where coastal Indigenous nations are reimagining their relationships with the ocean, such as the Heiltsuk Nation’s Oceans Act, titled “Respecting and Taking Care of Our Ocean Relatives”, which sets out their gvilas (laws), and the Haida Nation’s designation of Haida Protected Areas to care for supernatural beings integral to their culture and governance. We will also discuss the Rights of the Salish Sea Framework, which aims to bridge between Indigenous and other legal traditions, and innovative Marine Planning Partnership plans, which have forged new relationships between Indigenous and other orders of government in Canada.

Creating an European hub for the Rights of Nature

This interactive workshop aims to gather and help mobilize people and organizations of the European Rights of Nature movement in order to co-create a regional Hub for collective mobilization, support, positive impact and advancement in Rights of Nature actions and campaigns in Europe. The regional Hub aims to become a semi-autonomous, decentralized and mobilizing space which, together with other hubs, form creative clusters within GARN pursuing different elements of a shared agenda all around the world. Organized by Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature (GARN) and Naturens Rättigheter i Sverige (Rights of Nature Sweden). Facilitated by: Osprey Orielle Lake (WECAN International, USA), Valérie Cabanes (GARN, France). Online Zoom participation will be possible during this workshop.

Ecopsychology, animism and the Soul of the World

Rights of Nature in the Convention for Biological Diversity

The state of ecosystems and nature conservation is regularly discussed in international forums. This workshop aims to investigate how Rights of Nature could be applied in international agreements with focus on the Convention for Biological Diversity. We will gather experts in international conservation, and representatives from government, NGOs and others working with biodiversity and rights issues. Louise Hård af Segerstad, Maria Schultz and Pella Thiel leads the workshop.

I am Nature, I am Artificial - Am I Aware?

As human beings we literally participate in nature in every breath, with every meal, with every visit to a toilet. We also participate in nature in our way of experiencing reality. And we live very much in our minds – also literally: we live in an actual artificial environment that we create and sustain. The latter often seems to alienate us from our simultaneous and inescapable natural existence. It is as if we are pulled in two directions. In this workshop, led by Per Johansson and Louise Hård af Segerstad, we explore how this dual pull lives in us, both personally and collectively.

Inventing the Universities We Need

TOM GOLDTOOTH

Tom BK Goldtooth,  Dine’/Dakota, United States is the Executive Director of the Indigenous Environmental Network, an international indigenous NGO based in Bemidji, Minnesota near the border of United States/Canada. A social change maker within the Native American community for over 36 years, has become an internationally renowned environmental, climate and economic justice leader, working with many Indigenous People and social movements around the world. Tom co-produced the award-winning documentary, Drumbeat for Mother Earth, which addresses the effects of bio-accumulative chemicals on indigenous people. Co-founder of the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature. Nationality: United States.  President of the Fourth Rights of Nature Tribunal in Bonn, Germany.

KERI FACER

Keri Facer is Professor of Educational and Social Futures at the University of Bristol and the current Zennström Climate Change Leadership professor at Uppsala University. She works on rethinking the relationship between formal educational institutions and wider society and is particularly concerned with the sorts of knowledge that may be needed to address contemporary environmental, economic, social and technological changes.

PER JOHANSSON

Per thought he was going to be a zoologist. But some rather esoteric experiences made it necessary for him to delve into the world of the mind, rather than that of nature. After a while he realised that mind and nature must be the same, in some strange way. What to do? Well, he avoided the university as much as possible. Even so, he got a PhD in human ecology at Lund University, eventually finishing a thesis called The Lure of Origins. He left the university in 2007 and is now a consultant, writer, speaker, maker of radio programmes, and an enthusiastic collaborator with various artists. Now and then he also works as an independent expert for the European Commission on matters of culture. His pod radio shows with well known culture journalist Eric Schüldt – Människan och maskinen, Kunskapens träd and Myter & Mysterier – have acquired something of a cult status in Sweden.

NIKOLAS BERG

HANA BEGOVIC

Hana Begović is the Organizer at the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature, in Ecuador, and holds a degree in Sustainable Development, Globalization and Human Rights. She has also studied Latin American movements and been engaged in various initiatives in Sweden, Bosnia and Ecuador concerning women’s rights, indigenous rights, climate change and urban sustainability. Recently, she was the logistics coordinator for the launch of the historical proposal Kawsak Sacha in Quito, a proposal developed by the Native Kichwa People of Sarayaku in the Ecuadorian Amazon. She is also currently co-developing a project for solar energy in Amazonian communities.

MARTIN HULTMAN

Associate professor Martin Hultman works as lecturer at Linköping and Gothenburg University. He is engaged in local politics organising events around ecotourism, popular science and transition. As an interdisciplinary scholar he is the co-ordinator of Environmental Posthumanities Network, initiator of SweMineTechNet and organiser of two international conference on ecopreneurship and climate denialism respectively. His publications include the books Discourses of Global Climate Change and Den inställda omställningen. Hultmans current research revolves around issues such as posthumanities ethics, ecofeminism, environmental utopias, climate change denial and ecopreneurship historically as well as contemporary. At the moment he is finishing a new book project called Ecological Masculinities.

MARIAM CARLSSON KANYAMA

Mariam Carlsson Kanyama holds an LLM in international environmental law from Lund University, Sweden. She participated in the International rights of Nature tribunal in Paris (2015) and Bonn (2017) as part of her work with the network End ecocide on Earth. She is a founding member of Swedish Earth Lawyers (SERL).

LINDA NOWLAN

Linda Nowlan is a staff lawyer at West Coast Environmental Law in Vancouver, where she leads the Marine Program. She advises environmental groups and First Nations on marine protection laws and legal strategies to advance marine co-governance. Her current law reform initiatives focus on strengthening Canada’s Oceans and Fisheries Acts, passing new oil tanker moratorium legislation, introducing a provincial coastal and marine law, and assisting with the completion of the Heiltsuk Nation’s Respecting and Taking Care of Our Ocean Relatives Act. Linda Nowlan led a team to produce a plain language Guide to international environmental treaties, and wrote the IUCN Law and Policy Paper The Legal Regime for Arctic Environmental Protection.

GUNILLA HÖGBERG BJÖRK

Gunilla Högberg Björck is a lawyer and owner of the law firm GBH Miljörätt, mainly working as legal representative for environmental NGOs and private citizens in matters of environmental law. Gunilla has worked with many different cases regarding protection of nature, issues of legal standing and access to justice. She represented the NGO Djurgården-Lilla Värtans Miljöskyddsförening before the EU court in case C-263/08 (a case resulting in changes in the Swedish Environmental Code concerning legal standing for environmental NGOs). Gunilla often teaches environmental law.

PIA BJÖRSTRAND

Pia Björstrand is a practising lawyer. Her heart has always been burning for Nature’s rights, she just didn’t know it until she took the course “The Earth is the home of the soul” and found new hope in her lifelong struggle for the Earth. Pia has been an engaged environmental activist since ages, is now spokesperson for the Swedish organisation “Klimataktion”, an active member of the local Transition network and a member of the local board of Swedish Society for Nature Conservation. Pia is founder of Swedish Earth Right Lawyers and #Lawyersforfuture in Sweden.

MARI MARGIL

Mari Margil is the Associate Director of the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF), where she leads the organization’s International Center for the Rights of Nature. CELDF is a founding member of the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature, and assisted in drafting the Universal Declaration for the Rights of Mother Earth. Margil assisted Ecuador’s Constituent Assembly to draft Rights of Nature constitutional provisions, and is working in Nepal, India, Australia, and other countries to advance Rights of Nature frameworks. In 2016, Margil assisted members of the Ho-Chunk Nation in the United States to draft the first tribal constitutional amendment on the Rights of Nature, and advised members of the Green Party of England and Wales in developing their new party platform on the Rights of Nature.

VALERIE CABANES

NATALIA GREENE

Natalia Greene is part of the International Rights of Nature Tribunal’s Secretariat.  She was actively involved in the recent Constitution process in Ecuador, particularly with the ‘Rights to Nature’ clause and the role of civil society and indigenous people in the process. Natalia is a consultant for Rights of Nature with Pachamama Alliance and is the focal point in Ecuador for the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature. She graduated in Hampshire College, holds a Political Science master’s degree from FLACSO Ecuador and a master’s degree from UASB on Climate Change. She has worked on the environmental and indigenous aspects of the Yasuní-ITT Initiative to keep oil underground in the Amazon. From 2011 until 2013, Natalia Greene was the President of CEDENMA, the National Coordinating Entity for Environmental NGO’s, now re-elected for the 2018-2020 period.

HENRIK HALLGREN

Henrik Hallgren is the founder of Lodyn, a Swedish non-governmental organization engaged in Ecopsychology, Nature awareness and Nature’s rights activism. He is teaching courses, lectures and write books, articles and reports in these topics. In 2016 he was part of the interactive dialogue of the UN General Assembly on Harmony with Nature. He is a ceremonial leader in the Scandinavian heathen tradition called Forn Sed, and has an academic background in archaeology and social anthropology.

MALIN ÖSTMAN

Malin Östman has worked at CEMUS since 2005 in different capacities. Currently she also works for the Faculty of Science and Technology at Uppsala university with educational development. 2013 Malin won Uppsala University´s pedagogical price for Active Student Participation. Right now her primary focus is on how to encourage students and the university at large to take on the current sustainability challenges as well as being an active participant in society.

MARIE PERSSON NJAJTA

Marie Persson Njajta is a member of the Sami Parliament and human rights activist dedicated to indigenous rights and childrens rights. She has founded the Network Stop the mine in Rönnbäck, fighting the last 8 years against a nickel mine planned on her ancestral lands in the Ume river delta. Marie is often speaking on the exploitation and colonisation of Sapmi.

ZARA WALDEBÄCK

Zara has been working shamanically since 2005. As well as teaching shamanism, she helped to set up and run the International Shamanic Community (ISC) and is a writer and filmmaker. She has published two books on creative writing. She also teaches the use of story as a healing tool that helps us hear Nature and connect to the invisible side of Life. Together with Jonathan Horwitz she has taught many eco-shamanic courses at Schumacher College in the UK and at their retreat center Åsbacka in southern Sweden, where they help people to heal and re-establish connection to Nature. www.shamanism.dk

MIKAEL KARLSSON

Mikael has have always loved forests, ecosystems based forestry is Nature’s Rights put in practice, he says. Ecoforestry expert Mikael Karlsson is an author, lecturer and advisor in the area of ecosystem based forestry. He is also the founder of Ecoforestry Foundation. The Foundation’s mission is to promote an ecosystem based forest management, through information, communication and practical examples.

GEORGIA LLOYD-SMITH

Georgia Lloyd-Smith is part of West Coast Environmental Law’s Aboriginal and Natural Resources law team. She is excited to be working on the RELAW Project (Revitalizing Indigenous Law for Law, Air, and Water) and to be working to protect our precious coast. Georgia believes in the power of human connection to affect change, and sees law as an essential component of this work. She spends her thinking time in spaces where cultures, values, and ideas converge, in particular in the fields of Indigenous, environmental, health, and human rights law.

SARA AJNNAK

GABRIELA ESLAVA BEJARANO

Gabriela Eslava is one of the researchers who made the first legal action on climate change and the rights of future generations in Latin America. She also belongs to the group of 25 young plaintiffs of this legal action, which ended with the Colombian Amazon being granted rights. She is a lawyer who has worked in the Congress of the Republic of Colombia, with initiatives and community participation in environmental matters, economic incentives for the conservation of biodiversity, payment for environmental services, right to water and animal rights. Her topics of interest are related to the formulation of public policies on environmental matters and constitutional litigation. She currently works as a researcher in the Litigation area at Dejusticia (Centro de Estudios de Derecho, Justicia y Sociedad) in Bogotá.

OSPREY ORIELLE LAKE

Osprey Orielle Lake is the Founder and Executive Director of the Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN). She works nationally and internationally with grassroots and Indigenous leaders, policy-makers and scientists to mobilize women for climate justice, resilient communities, systemic change and a just transition to a clean energy future. Osprey serves on the Executive Committee for the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature and is the visionary behind the International Women’s Earth and Climate Summit, which brought together 100 women leaders from around the world. She directs WECAN’s advocacy work in areas such as Women for Forests, Divestment/Investment, Indigenous Rights, Rights of Nature and United Nation Climate Conferences. Osprey is the author of the award-winning book, Uprisings for the Earth: Reconnecting Culture with Nature.

JONATHAN HORWITZ

Jonathan has a master’s degree in anthropology and has been working with shamanism since 1972. He has worked as a teacher and field researcher at the Foundation for Shamanic Studies and founded the Scandinavian Center for Shamanic Studies. Jonathan is a frequent contributor to “Sacred Hoop” magazine and was for many years the European Editor for “Journal of Shamanic Practice.” Together with Zara Waldebäck he has taught many eco-shamanic courses at Schumacher College in the UK and at their retreat center Åsbacka in southern Sweden, where they help people to heal and re-establish connection to Nature. www.shamanism.dk

PEDER KARLSSON

Peder Karlsson is the cultural coordinator of the conference. He graduated in 1989 from The Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm, Sweden, with a post-graduate Diploma in vocal ensemble performance.  He was a member of the internationally renowned Swedish a cappella group The Real Group 1984-2010, with whom he made 16 CDs and over 2000 concerts all over the world. Peder is Honorary Professor at Royal Academy of Music in Aarhus and Aalborg, Denmark, where he teaches artistic leadership in rhythmic choir music since 2015. He has co-created the “Organic Choirs” concept, which is based on rotated leadership and singer-centered creative processes. He is a founding member of European Voices Association and a part of the activism network End Ecocide Sweden.

SANNA BARRINEAU

Sanna Barrineau works with education for sustainable development and is the project coordinator of the Zennström Climate Change Leadership professorship. Her interests lie in creating institutions that care and the kinds of knowledges and learning processes may help us act more care-fully.

PELLA THIEL

Ecologist by training, changemaker and cultural creative by trade, Pella Thiel has a diverse experience as a nature interpreter and environmental activist. She has co-founded End Ecocide Sweden and Transition Network Sweden and writes, speaks and teaches on issues related to transition, ecopsychology and human relationships with nature. Pella is also a coordinator of the swedish Rights of Nature network and member of UN Harmony with Nature Initiative. She mostly likes practising permaculture on her family farm in Stockholm archipelago.

ALF LINDERMAN

Alf Linderman is associate professor of sociology of religion and executive director at the Sigtuna Foundation. In his research he has primarily focused on the relation between religion, media, politics and society, but he has also been involved in several research projects on climate change and the human capacity for innovation and adaptation.

ANNIKA LYKTA

Annika Lykta is an actor, director and musican, writer and project coordinator. She is a member of the physical theatre company Långsjö theatre, known for working close to interdisciplinary sustainability research with issues like: how can theatre and art be a partof  the transition to sustainability? At the Earth Rights Conference in 2017 the company performed ”The fisherman and his wife” This time Annika comes with pieces from her other company, NAjKAs repertoire, NAjKA has made a music and storytelling performance out of Kahlil Gibrans The Prophet.