“Despite rapid growth in the 20 years since the global RoN movement got off the ground, unfortunately RoN laws have largely failed to slow the rate of Earth’s destruction – much less stop it. This failure is attributable more to the death grip the current power dynamic has on the systems that RoN is designed to fundamentally alter than it is to RoN’s legal viability. As attacks on RoN intensify and the full actualization of RoN has yet to be reached, RoN still has tremendous potency. However, it is time for protectors of RoN’s integrity to step up. Though still quite young in the scope of transformational ideas, RoN is no longer a novelty, but a viable vehicle to confront planetary violence. With RoN’s rapid rise in popularity, it has also become highly vulnerable to corruption by well-meaning media platforms and environmental organizations who portray any adoption of ordinances or laws labeled “RoN,” and every aspirational RoN resolution, as victories for the movement. This is dangerous and makes coopting RoN easier for those in power.

CELDF has already seen cases of cooptation of RoN that, if unchallenged, will work to dilute, neutralize, and defeat this movement. To combat the cooptation of RoN and to ensure RoN’s revolutionary potential stays on track, beginning with this inaugural edition, CELDF will generate an annual “State of Rights of Nature” report that describes and evaluates important global RoN developments.”