Summary
Panama, Tonga and Vanuatu launched a voluntary coalition to build dialogue around a proposed UN process on the rights of nature. Its members are not committed to endorsing any particular legal framework or outcome.
Panama, Tonga and Vanuatu launched the For Nature Coalition of States on 24 September to build support and dialogue around a proposed United Nations process on the rights of nature. The initiative, described by its proponents in a Nature Comment, is a voluntary platform for states—not a declaration or a new set of binding international rules.
The proposal would recognize nature as a direct “subject of rights” with intrinsic value. Its supporters argue that giving ecosystems this legal standing could change how governments, companies and people account for the effects of their decisions on the natural world.
What the coalition is proposing
Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino proposed recognizing universal rights of nature at the UN General Assembly in September. The coalition was launched later that month by Panama, Tonga and Vanuatu, with Palau and Dominica among its founding members, according to the Comment’s authors: Panama’s environment minister Juan Carlos Navarro and marine biologist Callie Veelenturf.
The platform is informal, decentralized and voluntary. Member states can exchange experiences and contribute to diplomatic discussion of a proposed UN Universal Declaration of the Rights of Nature, within the UN’s Harmony with Nature process. The authors say the coalition is intended to complement, not replace, formal intergovernmental negotiations in the General Assembly. Joining does not commit a state to a specific legal framework, negotiated result or text.
Navarro and Veelenturf also report signing a joint memorandum of understanding on 10 April to launch an international collaborative process to negotiate a declaration over the next few years. That describes a planned process; the coalition’s launch is a step toward organizing discussion around it.
How a rights-based approach would work
The proposal differs from environmental rules that focus on regulating human activities or managing damage. Its proponents want the needs of healthy ecosystems to be considered directly in decision-making, and argue that this could make corporations, governments and individuals legally accountable—and financially responsible—for impacts on nature.
The framework they advocate includes in dubio pro natura, or “when in doubt, side with nature”. It also invokes the prevention principle: where there is uncertainty, preventive measures should be considered rather than using uncertainty as a reason for inaction. These are principles proposed by the authors, not terms of an adopted universal declaration.
The coalition’s immediate role is diplomatic coordination. Whether a future declaration would create enforceable obligations, and how states might incorporate any eventual agreement into domestic law, would depend on the negotiated text and subsequent legal steps. For now, the initiative puts a proposed shift in the legal status of nature onto a multilateral discussion agenda.