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In April 2010, the “Universal Declaration of
the Rights of Mother Earth” was
proclaimed during the “Conferencia Mundial
de los Pueblos sobre el Cambio Climático y
los Derechos de la Madre Tierra” held at
Cochabamba (Bolivia). The first article of
the Declaration proclaims Mother Earth
as a living being, a community of
interrelated and interdependent creatures, all
entitled to the inherent rights recognized in
the Declaration, without distinction of any
kind between beings, species, origin or other status. Drawn up with a contribution from Cullinan
(2011), this document is today being considered by the UN with a view to its adoption.
In 2012, New Zealand conferred legal personality on the Whanganui River on the basis of the
Whanganui River Agreement between the government and Maori population. Stone's theory,
proposed a few years earlier by jurists at the University of Otago to give voice to the aspirations of
the indigenous population to co-manage the river territory considered as a living entity, was thus
recognised and given a legal basis (Baldin, 2014b). The agreement provides for the appointment of
two guardians to represent and act on behalf of this entity, named Te Awa Tupua, in other words
“an indivisible and living whole, comprising the Whanganui River from the mountains to the sea,
incorporating all its physical and metaphysical elements”. The guardians have the task of protecting
the health and wellbeing of the river, defending its status and values, acting and speaking on its
behalf, carrying out landowner functions on certain areas of land, participating in regulatory
processes and managing funds in the name of Te Awa Tupua (Morris & Ruru, 2010).
Following the example of New Zealand, on 21 March 2017, the Court of Uttarakhand, a small state
in Northern India, conferred legal personality on the rivers Ganges and Yamuna, with the aim of
avoiding damage by grandiose exploitation projects. The Court declared that the two great rivers
“have the status of a legal person with all corresponding rights, duties and liabilities” and appointed
three guardians
responsible for their
protection and
conservation.
In Europe, a certain
receptiveness towards
conferring legal
personality on plants,
animals and ecosystems
can be seen in those
legal systems in which
environmental
associations, and
possibly also individuals
or groups of citizens,

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