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Our relationship with the environment is changing. Across the world, governments and individuals have begun to advocate for the independent legal and moral status of the environment. Consider some examples.

In 2008, Ecuador confirmed ‘rights for nature’ in its constitution.  In 2010 Bolivia legislated the same.  In 2014-17 New Zealand conferred “legal personality” to Te Urewera National Park, the Whanganui river, and Mt. Taranaki.  Also in 2017, the High Court of Uttarakhand declared – if briefly – the Ganges and Yamuna Rivers legal persons with legal rights.  Again in 2017, Colombia granted legal personhood to the river Atrato.  In 2019, Bangladesh declared the river Turag to be a living entity with legal rights, and extended that ruling to all Bangladeshi rivers.  In Feb. 2021, the Innu Council of Ekuanitshit and the regional municipality of Minganie, Quebec, Canada asserted legal personhood for Mutehekau Shipu, aka, the Magpie River.

The above examples demonstrate an overdue shift in social policy, recognising the natural environment as not just a resource, nor just a setting for human activity, but as an entity deserving rights and protection in virtue of its own moral standing. That sentiment should only grow, particularly as emerging technologies offer to change our dependence on the environment as resource. At Ecohold, we aim to foster and promote this movement, by funding, promoting, and engaging in research that (a) explores the nature, rights, and flourishing of the environment, and (b) develops social and technological innovations towards the coexistence of human society and the independently entitled environment.

The environment is part of society – not just the background to it.

EcoHold aims to speak for the environment, and is unique among similar organisations for our philosophy-first approach. We aim to develop new ways of thinking about, viewing, and approaching the environment, to guide and structure public policy and thought on a fundamental level, and even to develop models for restructuring the basic organisational principles of human society.

Many admirable organisations already provide worthy environmental services.  These organisations offer money, legal resources, and practical expertise to those fighting for sustainability and the welfare of the environment.  Yet these organisations face a common challenge on a basic level – that, as a society, we currently lack a common, coherent, and principled account of what environmental welfare actually looks like, of where it starts and ends, of what guardianship of the environment entails, or of the basis on which environmental rights are founded.  In every instance, environmental rights campaigns are forced to tailor themselves to local policies, and face resistance from governments and institutions that don’t believe in or aren’t convinced by their arguments.  This can be seen perhaps most prominently in 2017’s tragic reversal, by India’s Supreme Court, of the rights previously granted to the Ganges and Yamuna rivers.  Moreover, arguments for environmental rights are often tied to the protection of human rights, which leaves them vulnerable to shifts in human needs or attitudes, and may undermine the entire conceptual basis of the environmental rights movement.

In light of the above, EcoHold maintains a theory-first focus. We believe that the environmental rights movement must reshape public policy and social attitudes, and that arguments for and evidence of the need to reform must be built on a firm body of theoretical and applied research. To that end, we don’t provide resources to specific individual efforts, or fund local movements – we leave that up to the many other worthy organisations already doing so.  Instead, we focus on funding and dispersing world-leading research.  Our methodology aims to promote philosophically robust research explaining not only what rights the environment has, but why and how it has them, alongside social and technological research that demonstrates how society can be productively reshaped. Finally, through paying open access fees, organising conferences and events, detailed reporting, and social media outreach, we aim to distribute the results of such research in an accessible way the world over.