Rights for Nature Ireland

We depend on nature for life, the air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat and the stability of our climate. Yet our natural world is under enormous pressure from human-caused climate change, biodiversity loss and the continued exploitation of our planet’s dwindling resources.

Under European law, companies have legal rights, while the ecosystems that sustain all life have no inherent legal rights of their own. Nature is too often treated as property or a resource to be exploited.

Rights for Nature offers a way to change this. It is a legal and cultural movement that seeks to recognise ecosystems, including rivers, forests, bogs and seas, as rights-holders with the right to exist, thrive and regenerate. By giving nature legal standing and a means of representation, we can move beyond protecting nature only when human interests are affected, towards recognising and defending its intrinsic value.

We urgently need to transform our relationship with the natural world. Nature restoration and rewilding can help bring back healthy, functioning ecosystems and give nature the space to recover. But this requires systemic change in how we value, govern and interact with the living world. Rights of Nature provides the philosphical underpinning to nature restoration and rewilding. We must move beyond an extractive economy towards a regenerative future, and learn to coexist with the other species with whom we share this planet.

Officially registered with the European Commission, the Irish Rights for Nature campaign is part of a growing European movement calling for this fundamental shift in environmental law. From 13 October 2026, we will collect one million signatures through a European Citizens’ Initiative, bringing this demand directly to the European Commission.

Ireland has already built strong foundations for Rights of Nature, including political support for a referendum to recognise nature’s rights in the Irish Constitution. Now, we have an opportunity to help drive change across Europe.

Join the campaign. Stand up for nature. Help build a future where wild nature thrives and society learns to live in harmony with the natural world.