October 19th, 2026
Rights of Nature in the UK: Where Are We Now?
by Emma Montlake
The national picture for nature’s recovery in the UK is complex and worrying. News last week of the lowest recorded bird numbers since records began, insect numbers plummeting, the silent extinction, and Natural England’s wings clipped further all make for a depressing picture.
And yet, Rights of nature in the UK, it is fair to say is at an exciting juncture, tripping along at pace. At a time of desperate nature crisis, a flourishing global earth jurisprudence movement has taken hold in the UK. I am told it is the fastest growing movement in the world. A well spring of innovation and creativity arising, inspired by a love of nature and a deep desire to do things differently, an acknowledgement that business as usual is unsustainable.
Most gratifying of all is the grassroots nature of that flourishing, driven by local nature heroes and guardians, local government support and implementation coming in behind. But more than that, there is a real sense of cross pollination amongst the rights movement, between lawyers, nature conservation charities, local nature groups, local and national politicians, artists and even the nature regulators. We are all learning what this means in the UK context.
Back in February 2023 when Lewes DC took its historic vote to explore a rights of rivers approach for its beleaguered river the Ouse, it is not an overstatement to say it unleashed a torrent of activity and media interest. When LDC took its next historic decision to publicly declare their support for and championing for the Ouse charter and its principles, it was a delicious moment.
Since the LDC decision we have seen a blossoming of River Charters, local authority motions granting charters, rivers and trees have been granted rights around the country and many more river groups, Parish Councils and local organisations are exploring what it could mean for their local environment.
I am slightly biased living in Lewes, but I must report that on the 10th September, Lewes Town Council unanimously passed a rights of trees motion embedding within the motion the next steps for the Council and other supporters to uphold local tree rights – ELF’s dear friend Dr Jo Smallwood at Sussex University was instrumental.
In April, Maidstone Borough Council (MBC) adopted a rights of nature framework providing, MBC states “a practical way of embedding environmental considerations across the Council and which supports the delivery of the Biodiversity Action Plan and Climate Change Action Plan”.
It is so interesting to see the way rights charters and frameworks are evolving. Whilst the wording of the rights maintains a consistency of approach, right to flow, right to not be polluted, etc, how those rights will be actioned and implemented, the “what difference does a charter make?”, is what comes next. How local councils take decisions through the rights of nature lens, who represents nature in decisions, how can nature’s rights be embedded into local plans (within the confines of statutory duties), what it means for a Catchment Partnership. So many questions and more besides.
ELF’s Rights of Nature work is evolving beyond the development and adoption of charters to focus on their practical implementation. This includes exploring how charters can be embedded within existing local and national policy and regulatory frameworks, and developing a practical, replicable template to help other communities develop, adopt and implement their own Rights of Nature charters.
Guardianship, not a new concept is also finding its place within the rights of nature movement. Many river groups are defining themselves around concepts of Guardianship; what it means to be a defender and friend to a natural entity, a citizen scientist that identifies sources of pollution, to work in service to nature. Many of us can identify with being a guardian – possibly the greatest proponent of this in the UK is Paul Powesland of Lawyers for Nature. His much-publicised fight with the Environment Agency, an example perhaps of extreme Guardianship. Whilst we cannot all do as Paul does, we can all look out for our rivers.
Another emerging area for nature rights is around the representation of nature’s voice. This is emerging in several different ways. Bringing nature into the room is not some glib effectuation; some would say it is transformative. Some charters make exception for this, such as the Ouse charter, its 9th and potentially most important right, “to an influential voice in decisions that effect it”. How is that voice represented? The River Usk Catchment Partnership has appointed two river guardians to represent the Usk in catchment decisions. Nature on the board is also gaining traction pioneered in the UK, Faith in Nature has had nature on the board for over 2 years. Gower Street, a progressive funder has mother earth as one of their directors. And Wales, always a few steps ahead of us in England, appointed nature as a stakeholder to the National Infrastructure Commission for Wales. All talk of transformative decision making, having nature’s voice represented, makes a difference.
Another idea that has been taking off brings nature into the room in the form of deliberative democracy. Much like a citizen’s assembly brings together voices not often heard, to deliberate difficult issues, towards respectful consensus building rather than fraught adversarial notions of democracy. Council of All Beings, or Interspecies Council as pioneered in this country through Moral Imaginations has seen a developing sweep.
For example, Love Our Ouse at their recent Riverloution Festival held a 3 hour session with members of the public, where 40 strangers invited into the Council Chamber at Lewes Town Hall were asked to step into the skin of a species, to embody for some hours an alder, a sea trout, a chalk stream and a nightingale and others. It was truly beautiful and those attending spoke of a transformative experience, to speak for the other, as they had never spoken before.
The language we use is also being scrutinized by clever academics. Forever we have made nature an object through the language we use, the “iting” of the nature world. Language is important, it creates impression and perception and if we are to move away from viewing nature as property, resource, extractive, then we must choose more carefully how we describe nature. A community of trees, rather than a wood. Rights language of course already disrupts traditional norms of how we view nature, nature as a rights bearer, the idea of personhood and not simply object.
And if that wasn’t enough there is a Rights of Nature bill, sponsored by Natalie Bennett of the Green party, making its way through the Lords – a bill to recognise nature as a legal entity, creating a duty of care for nature.
The remarkable work taking place in Somerset, where local volunteers have explored waterways through the eyes of salmon, otters and earthworms, is yet another example of the creativity and fresh thinking driving this movement forward. And with Robert Macfarlane’s Is a River Alive? bringing these ideas to wider audiences, alongside his upcoming 2026 BBC Reith Lectures, it’s clear that Rights of Nature is increasingly entering the mainstream.
What is particularly exciting is the diversity of approaches emerging across the UK, from grassroots campaigns and community charters to local government action and national legislative proposals. The challenge now is to translate this growing momentum into meaningful change in how we make decisions about, protect and live alongside nature. There is still much to learn, but the creativity, collaboration and determination driving this movement give us plenty of reasons to be hopeful.