9.9 The Rights of Nature and Regenerative Design
Alice L. McLean
The Rights of Nature movement reflects a growing understanding that nature deserves our respect, protection, and legal rights — it’s a fundamental shift in humankind’s relationship with nature: from one of use and exploitation, to one of care and protection.
—Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights
The United States passed the world’s first Rights of Nature law in 2006, when Tamaqua, Pennsylvania, banned the dumping of sewage sludge, declaring it a violation of the rights of nature. Two years later Ecuador became the first country to adopt the Rights of Nature into its constitution, setting a precedent for legalizing a worldview that centers non-humans as having inalienable rights. This shift in mindset draws attention to the harms humans have inflicted on nature. The harmful treatment of nature stems, in large part, from the Western perception of nature as a resource from which monetary value can be extracted. The use of nature as a resource for economic gain that has prevailed since the 16th century has led to the extinction of “at least 680 vertebrates and almost 600 plant species” (Grantham Research Institute, 2022). The loss of biodiversity has spiked in the past 200 years as industrialization has polluted entire ecosystems. A decades-long study by the World Wildlife Fund shows that between 1970 and 2018 wildlife populations decreased by 69%.
In response to this environmental crisis, the 21st century has seen a rising number of legal battles fought and won for the Rights of Nature alongside a growing push toward sustainability within the tourism industry. In 2012, the United Nations declared “the need to support sustainable tourism activities and relevant capacity-building that promote environmental awareness, conserve and protect the environment, respect wildlife, flora, biodiversity, ecosystems and cultural diversity, and improve the welfare and livelihoods of local communities” (United Nations, 2012, para. 130). To help achieve this goal, in 2015 the UN released “The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development,” which includes the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) [See Figure 2].
In 2024, the UN released a report showing that only 17% of its goals are on track to be met by 2030. Almost half of the set goals, or 48%, have no chance of being fulfilled. Because of the systemic failure to meet the majority of the goals set by the United Nations, tourism professionals have begun to urge a shift in mindset that embraces the tenets of responsible tourism but pushes them even further to call for a paradigm shift aimed at transforming our understanding of tourism as an industry focused on expansion and growth into one that sees tourism as made up of a nested set of interdependent systems working toward regeneration and renewal. This regenerative model aligns philosophically with the Rights of Nature movement. This push toward a shift in worldview has gained enough traction that the term has become a buzzword, often misused as a form of greenwashing—a term that denotes the use of false claims about being sustainable or environmentally friendly in order to lure clients or users for profit.
As the Constitution of Ecuador expresses, however, practicing a regenerative approach toward our natural environment requires far more than words, certifications (many of which fail to achieve significant impacts), and carbon offsets, in which companies invest in carbon-reducing ventures in order to offset, or balance out, their own carbon emissions. Carbon offsets may include investing in certificates that support the restoration of nature (such as reforestation projects), or clean or renewable energy (such as wind or solar), or carbon-reducing technologies.
Nature, as defined by the Ecuadorian Constitution, “has the right to exist, persist, maintain and regenerate its vital cycles, structure, functions and its processes in evolution” (Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights [CDER], 2025, Article 71). When actions have been taken that cause “severe or permanent environmental impact, including those caused by the exploitation of nonrenewable natural resources, the State shall establish the most effective mechanisms to achieve the restoration” (CDER, 2025, Article 72).
Key Takeaway
The Rights of Nature has emerged as a revolutionary legal and ethical movement that recognizes nature as possessing inherent rights, challenging centuries of viewing nature purely as a resource for human use.
Significance to Regenerative Tourism: This movement aligns with regenerative tourism’s vision of treating ecosystems as living entities, prioritizing systemic restoration and the intrinsic rights of natural systems to thrive.
Significance to Tourism: For tourism, the Rights of Nature compels a transformation from a growth-driven, extractive model to one that acknowledges destinations as dynamic living systems, urging businesses and governments to design tourism practices that protect biodiversity and uphold local communities’ rights.
Attributions
- Figure 9.10: Cotopaxi, by Frederic Edwin Church, is available in the public domain.
- Figure 9.11: Rights of Nature Timeline, by Hannah Adams for WA Open ProfTech (© SBCTC), is licensed under CC BY 4.0.
Advocates for ecosystems and species to have legal rights to exist, thrive, and evolve. It shifts legal frameworks away from viewing nature as property toward recognizing it as a rights-bearing entity. Regenerative tourism aligns with this movement by treating destinations as living systems deserving protection and stewardship.
