Rights Of Nature – Lessons Learned in The Fight

New book features stories by Ohioans on the frontlines of protective local self-governance.

By Suzanne Forcese

The book highlights the voices of citizens who have been instrumental in the eight -year journey to propose and pass country charters, city charter amendments-, and city ordinances recognizing protective self-governance and the Rights of Nature. photo courtesy CELDF

Written by local organizers in Ohio, the first-hand stories reveal how grassroots have shifted local political dynamics, advanced rights of ecosystems, and inspired campaigns and lawmaking in other states and countries, like Ireland, The Netherlands, Sweden, Spain, and France.

Local community lawmaking is advanced through direct democracy to reorient the priorities and obligations of the law to protect human and ecological life.

Tish O’Dell, a community organizer with the CELDF legal team told WT “The communities featured in this book began fighting to protect their neighbors, families, and the environment from corporate projects beginning in 2012. They have come up against the most powerful organizations to protect what they love...the place they call home.”

The front-line citizens featured in the book reveal how “communities face down and organize to oppose oil/gas fracking, fracking waste injection wells, industrialized agriculture, water privatization, and corporate control.”

“The hope is that other citizens might see their own community in these stories and realize that people must unite to take on the system and protect themselves and the environment.”

The book is available in both hard copy and digital format through CELDF

(Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund) www.celdf.org

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