A first-of-its-kind toolkit aimed at winning legal rights for trees, woodlands and forests in the UK, has been launched by the Environmental Justice Law Clinic.
The Rights of Trees, Woodlands and Forests toolkit is available online and seeks to advance the way we recognise and respect the inherent value of trees and woodlands in the UK. The Rights of Nature movement recognises ecosystems – such as rivers, forests, and mountains – not as human property or resources, but as legal subjects with inherent rights to exist, thrive, and regenerate.
By changing the way legal and policy protections for trees work, it hopes to address the ongoing destruction of trees and woodland by human activity and shift social attitudes.
The toolkit provides a strategy for groups and individuals battling to save endangered trees and woodlands by challenging current law and policy which is often based on considering nature solely as property, objects and resources. Available online it involved research conducted by law students at the University of Sussex.
Principles from the toolkit have already been used to protect trees such as the 1066 Yew Tree in St George’s Churchyard, Crowhurst, Sussex thought to be more than 1,300 years old, pre-dating the Battle of Hastings and the arrival of William the Conqueror.
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