on a lawsuit brought forth by a women’s association of the indigenous Kukama people. The association sought recognition of the intrinsic rights of the Marañón River. The judgement is part of a broader constitutional trend towards recognizing nature’s own rights. This movement is notably being driven by Latin American nations where indigenous perspectives on nature emphasize the intrinsic link between a healthy environment and the realization of human rights, thereby softening the adversarial stance between anthropocentrism and ecocentrism. As such, this jurisprudence may serve as catalyst for the ecological constitutional evolution of Western legal systems.
When Teresa Chang first saw the plot of land that now makes up the Amotape Dry Forest Private Conservation Area in the Tumbes municipality of northern Peru, she was horrified. It was 1997 and she was looking for a place near the sea to retire with her husband. But the barren 123-hectare (300-acre) lot that […]
The central coast of Peru is cleaning up after a catastrophe due to a large oil spill on Jan. 15, 2022. The environmental emergency occurred after a pipe ruptured between an Italian oil tanker, the Mare Doricum, and the refinery of La Pampilla, owned by Spanish oil major Repsol. On Jan. 17, Rubén Ramírez, Peru’s […]