The UN General Assembly organized the first high-level meeting to discuss Harmony with Nature and the Culture of Good Living so that non-anthropocentric and Earth-centered paradigms can continue to strengthen multilateralism \u2013 starting from the discussion of integral approaches based on the worldviews of forest peoples and indigenous peoples \u2013 which can contribute to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The meeting was notable for the presence of the Bolivian Foreign Minister, Celinda Sosa, and the Colombian Minister of Environment and Development, Lena A\u00f1okazi. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Celinda and Lena participated in the opening of the meeting, highlighting how retrograde our anthropocentric worldview is, one that uses the land as a resource and devours both the soil and the dreams of the Andean peoples who have always known how to care for and honor the Earth. Lena, in turn, highlighted Colombian initiatives to empower indigenous leaders to occupy influential positions in territorial and environmental conservation decisions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
There is a large legal gap between Environmental Rights and the Rights of Nature, and conceptually, we still live in a society based on anthropocentrism that has difficulty seeing the Earth, rivers, and beings with different communication codes as important or even as beings. With the biophysical limits of the Earth being exceeded, it becomes increasingly evident that we need to organize different norms of coexistence within the planet. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201c"The Rights of Nature emerged from a recent global movement initiated with the promulgation of the Ecuadorian Federal Constitution of 2008, and propose a paradigmatic shift in legal sciences. While environmental law advocates anthropocentric responses to environmental destruction, where humans are at the center of concerns and Nature is considered a mere appropriable resource to be exploited; the Rights of Nature, also called the rights of Mother Earth, or Pachamama in Quechua, defend biocentric or ecocentric views.". <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nature thus comes to have intrinsic value, that is, value in itself, instead of being valued solely for its usefulness to humanity (instrumental value). Anthropocentrism, which places human beings at the center of the universe and as the only ones capable of attributing value to other beings, is replaced by other ethical and legal models, such as the aforementioned biocentrism \u2013 which recognizes intrinsic value to life itself \u2013 and ecocentrism \u2013 which recognizes intrinsic value to ecosystems as a whole.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Living life to the fullest is the response that law has adopted since the constitutions promulgated under the perspective of the new Latin American democratic constitutionalism. The new legislations of the South, especially the Federal Constitution of Ecuador (2008) and the Federal Law of Bolivia (2010), have guided the life of society from an ecocentric perspective and the 'ancestral community paradigm', based on the 'culture of life' that teaches how to live in harmony and balance with the environment, which they call vivir bien or buen vivir, translated in the original language of the Quechua Nation as 'sumak kawsay' or 'teko por\u00e3' for the Guarani Nation.\u2018 (mapas.org)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To view the meeting recording, please access the following link.<\/p>\n\n\n\n