UDTR Global Rights of Nature Radar

New Governance Ways Aimed at Protecting Nature for Future Generations: The Cases of Bangladesh, India and New Zealand: Granting Legal Personhood to Rivers

Identification

Public canonical key

doi:10.1088/1755-1315/690/1/012059

Authors

M Willems · Tineke Elisabeth Lambooy · S. Mumtaj Begum

Reported year

2021

Reported language

en

Source type

conference-paper

First detected

2026-11-09T19:04:47.856693+00:00

Last metadata observation

2026-11-09T19:14:42.788414+00:00

Last HTTP verification

Not checked

Institutions reported by the source

BGMEA University of Fashion & Technology · Kaunas University of Technology · Nyenrode Business University

Reported affiliation countries

BD · LT · NL

Documentary abstract — original language

Abstract Recently, three important rivers in Asia and Oceania were acknowledged as legal persons. Questions emerge, such as: Which motivation drives the people who urged the respective courts and governments to grant these rivers legal personhood, in other words, to create Rights of Nature? Do these events lead to transformative social innovation and change our perspectives of how we see nature? As methodology we employ doctrinal research, examining original legal documents and contemporary news sources concerning the three grassroots initiatives on the rivers. The analysis reveals that there are different reasons for proposing this innovative legal approach of creating Rights of Nature. They include: providing people access to clean rivers for drinking water, sanitation, transportation and agricultural purposes; preventing the river from disappearing; addressing the issue of pollution and toxicity of river water; acknowledging the divine status of the river; and honouring indigenous beliefs concerning the river. The research findings demonstrate transformative social innovation: in all three cases, grassroots initiatives led to a system change. Moreover, dissemination of information concerning individual cases inspires other societal groups to reconsider the situation of their own ecosystems and to develop innovative governance possibilities, thereby honouring an alternative worldview in which human beings see themselves as part of nature rather than owning it just for utilitarian purposes.

Identifiers

DOI

10.1088/1755-1315/690/1/012059

OPENALEX

W3152733257

OPENAIRE

doi_dedup___::321b45ca0e6812f940a88c976f7fe762

Documentary context

Documentary family

Conference paper / proceedings

Source-reported types

Article · conference-paper

Jurisdictions studied — explicit sources

BD · IN · NZ

Natural entities mentioned

River · Ecosystem

Entity mentions are not evidence of legal recognition. Jurisdiction studied is separate from author affiliation country.

Sources

OpenAIRE · Record 1

OpenAlex · Record 1 · Record 2

• DOI · https://doi.org/10.1088/1755-1315/690/1/012059
• OpenAlex · https://openalex.org/W3152733257

Documented bibliographic relations

Source-declared references and links; they do not establish legal support or UGLC qualification. Up to 20 outgoing references are displayed.

• openalex:w2498693837 · CITES
• openalex:w2622131111 · CITES
• openalex:w2917173572 · CITES
• openalex:w2943091105 · CITES
• Protection through property: from private to river-held rights · CITES
• Legal personality and economic livelihood of the Whanganui River: a call for community entrepreneurship · CITES
• Why the Ganga should not claim a right of the river · CITES
• A case for granting legal personality to the Dutch part of the Wadden Sea · CITES

9 incoming references within the detected corpus

Documentary status

Relevance pending

Library

This identity is not yet included in the Legal Library.