Ancestral wisdom, inter-being, biocentric visions: an Earth Jurisprudence update

Every other month we collate Earth-centred inspiration from around the world; if you would like to receive updates like the below straight to your inbox, sign up here.

 

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Greetings Friends,

Ultimately, Earth Jurisprudence invites us to come home. Back to the web of life. To awe and wonder. To a sense of belonging. Or, in the words of Earth Jurisprudence Practitioner Gertrude Pswarayi-Jabson, to “remember who we are”: one species among so many in the family of life.

There are, of course, many paths home; and we each begin from a different place. In this latest update, Gertrude explores the potency of recovering our ancestral wisdom, Ailton Krenak encourages us to cultivate a “biocentric vision”, Shrishtee Bajpai attunes to our interbeingness and Gaia’s Katie Hastings extols the simple act of saving seed. 

Wherever you find yourself on the journey, we hope that this update can offer sustenance and inspiration along the way.

With warm and wild wishes, 

Carlotta, on behalf of the Gaia Team

The African Earth Jurisprudence Collective

Remembering Who We Are: Reflections on Agroecology and Earth Jurisprudence

“We need to return to our roots, reweave the basket of life, and remember who we are as a people… I see an Africa that has been revived, a continent with communities confident in practicing age-old traditions that took care of all forms of life.” In this wide-ranging and insightful conversation with the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa, Earth Jurisprudence Practitioner Gertrude Pswarayi-Jabson reflects on Earth Jurisprudence and its intersection with Agroecology, and shares the path that led her to join the African Earth Jurisprudence Collective.

Interbeingness

With the Gaze on Me: Living with the Rhythms and Moods of Nature

“Being looked at, witnessed, and experienced by other beings reveals our interbeingness. A kinship that existed for aeons, forgotten only a few centuries ago.” Shrishtee Bajpai reflects on the experience of being witnessed by the more-than-human community. “Trees hear us. Water remembers us. Dogs smell us. Lizards call out for us, and Earth embraces us, too.”

 

Interview with Indigenous author Ailton Krenak

Mongabay interviews long-term Gaia ally Ailton Krenak about his new book, Ancestral Future, and pathways towards a paradigm shift away from modern Western notions of progress, development and unrestrained economic growth. “[A] biocentric vision — an ethical perspective that holds every life as sacred — would be a path to the future… Perhaps the answer lies in the capacity for affection, for embracing all other nonhuman beings.”

Nature Restoration

Restoring Nature Is Our Only Climate Solution

Richard Heinberg addresses “carbon tunnel vision” and the necessity of embracing complexity to understand climate change and explains that “there is no viable techno-fix to climate change, and why trees, soil, and biodiversity are our real lifelines”.

Natural Law and Sacred Natural Sites

Decolonising Nature Conservation According to Natural Law: Learning from the Kogui

“The Kogui demonstrate that it is possible to live in harmony with the natural environment and to live an egalitarian and respectful life of dignity, care, and nurture.” Aili Pyhälä explores the nature-based cosmovision, strong cultural identity related to that cosmovision, and functioning governance system ordered by Natural Law of the Kogui Indigenous peoples of Colombia.

Rights of Nature

Ten Things You Should Know About Legally Recognising the Rights of Nature

Experts in legal personhood and the rights of Nature from Europe, South Asia, the Pacific and the Americas share their top ten insights for everyone looking to create or implement rights of Nature. “Rights of Nature can be a mirror of the power relations in our societies, both good and bad. If we want to find a way to address the on-going ecological crisis, we need to change the existing power dynamics.”

Latest Developments

Last week, the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature announced that the Ranchería River in Colombia is now a subject of rights with a Commission of Guardians. In July, an Ecuador court ruled that pollution violates rights of Quito’s Machángara River and in June Goiás City Council in Brazil recognised the rights of the Vermelho River.

Lawyers for Nature recently published an analysis – Waves in Brazil granted Rights of Nature – noting that this recent development is primarily for human benefit and that an inorganic flow pattern is the legal subject. Earth Law Center shared the news that Spanish Lagoon Mar Menor Faces Initial Court Involvement and Constitutional Challenges to Its Rights and also examined The False Promise of Hydropower and the Rights of Rivers in the Balkans.

 

Seed Sovereignty

The Power of Seed Sovereignty

Katie Hastings, Wales Coordinator for Gaia’s Seed Sovereignty Programme, extols the importance of seed saving and how seeds breed cooperation. “Just as seeds are meant to be grown, they are meant to be shared. As seed diversity slowly takes back ground in an undercurrent across the UK and Ireland, groups of people working in cooperation are flowering around them.”

Practice: Gratitude for the Four Elements

A Guided Meditation from Plum Village

Fire, Earth, Air, Water. We invite you to set aside five minutes today to contemplate the four elements that constitute life in all its myriad forms – and are central to diverse cosmologies across our living planet. Brother Phap Dung guides us to sharpen our awareness and appreciation of these elements as they find expression in our bodies.