The Rights of Nature (RoN) movement is a growing global effort to give legal recognition and rights to non-human entities. In practice, this means that rivers, forests, and other natural systems can be treated as legal persons, with the ability to be represented in court and protected from harm. Beyond its legal dimension, RoN rests on the principle that nature has intrinsic value and the right to exist, regenerate, and thrive outside of its role in supporting human needs. This represents a significant cultural shift: from viewing nature as property or resource, toward seeing it as an interconnected web of life, of which humans are a part. By bridging law and philosophy, the movement challenges us to rethink our responsibilities to the living world and opens new pathways for ecological protection, economic redesign, and cultural transformation.
The concept of more-than-human rights represents similar principles but emphasises the expansion of the scope of legal concern to protect not only the rights of humans, but of all parts of the living world beyond us. It encourages the expansion of the category of life.
