Lessons from Ecuador, World Leader in Rights of Nature with Paul Powlesland

Wednesday November 8th
Doors & drinks 6.30pm; Talk starts 7pm

Ecuador, where the Andes meets the Amazon, is one of the most biodiverse countries on earth. It also has the most developed laws and jurisprudence on Rights of Nature anywhere in the world. This incredibly rich nature, and the advanced laws protecting it, directly conflict with an extractivist agenda seeking to raise revenue through oil drilling, mining and farming, regardless of its destruction to trees, rivers and the Amazon ecosystem.

Paul Powlesland is a barrister, founder of Lawyers for Nature and a leading campaigner for the Rights of Nature in the UK. He travelled to Ecuador to research what environmental protections and strong Rights of Nature laws mean in practice. He witnessed cause for sadness and grief, with oil spills and illegal gold mining in the Amazon. He found cause for hope in agroforestry and reforestation projects. He got to visit communities that successfully protected their forests and rivers by invoking the Rights of Nature provisions in the Ecuadorian constitution. Most importantly, he got to meet, for the first time, a river and forest that were the subject of legal rights!

In this talk, Paul will show the stunning beauty of Ecuadorian nature and the threats it faces and explain why and how we should support the work of Ecuadorian Indigenous peoples and activists doing all they can to save it. He will also ask what lessons we can draw in the UK from the successful implementation of Rights of Nature in Ecuador.

Kairos, 84 Tottenham Court Road, London W1T 4TG

Doors open at 6.30pm for drinks. The talk will start at 7pm followed by a one-pot vegan supper and discussion.

£8 members, £15 non-members. Includes food.