Bolivia Leads: Recognizes the Earth's Status Is Equal to Humans

Bolivia recognizes the Earth's right to life, to balance, to be unpolluted, to not be genetically altered. Nature is recognized as having the rights of existence, of being Gaia, the Mother of us all.

by Heidi Stevenson

24 April 2011

The people of Bolivia have seen their land raped by the ravenous greed of corporate avarice, but have returned from that nightmare to understand that nothing in the world holds more importance than the Earth herself, Gaia. In recognition of her transcendent importance, Bolivia acknowledges Gaia's personhood in their constitution, granting her all the rights of each human being, and acknowledging that her needs must be met if the rest of us are to survive.

Bolivia shows us all the only path to a vibrant future. They are enshrining the rights of Gaia, including:

• The right to life.
• The right to continue vital cycles and processes without human alteration.
• The right to pure water and clean air.
• The right to balance.
• The right to be pollution-free.
• The right to be free of genetic alteration or modification of cells.

Isn't it striking that the needs of the Earth are the same as our own? It's certainly not coincidence that these are the same rights we require for survival. Bolivia has the wisdom to enshrine the Earth's rights alongside our own. We cannot survive unless Earth also survives. Therefore, the Earth's rights must be considered equal to our own for us to have any hope of survival. This is the most important lesson we can take to our own hearts and pass on down the generations. It's a lesson that, sadly, has been misplaced by the industrialized world.

Bolivia's vice president, Alvaro Garcia Linera, summed it up with:

It makes world history. Earth is the mother of all. It establishes a new relationship between man and nature, the harmony of which must be preserved as a guarantee of its regeneration.

David Choquehuanca, the foreign minister, explained Bolivia's heritage:

Our grandparents taught us that we belong to a big family of plants and animals. We believe that everything in the planet forms part of a big family. We indigenous people can contribute to solving the energy, climate, food, and financial crises with our values.

President Evo Morales is the first indigenous president of Bolivia. He has been a strong critic of the world's industrialized countries for not being interested in holding climate change to 1°C, an amount that has already resulted in widespread damage throughout Bolivia. They have endured both excessive rainfall and droughts. A massive mudslide recently wiped out thousands of homes in La Paz, Bolivia's capital. Farms have been failing from excessive heat and lack of rain. People have been forced off their land to try to find work in cities, usually with little success. Glaciers have shrunk, and some have disappeared.

Bolivia has also suffered massive destruction of their land and environment from corporate rapaciousness. Their land is rich in mineral and metal deposits, as well as oil. Of course, the people of Bolivia have not benefitted.

In response to the industrialized world's depradations of their land, Bolivia is taking the lead by recognizing that our own survival exists in tandem with the health of Gaia. An early draft of the law states:

She is sacred, fertile and the source of life that feeds and cares for all living beings in her womb. She is in permanent balance, harmony and communication with the cosmos. She is comprised of all ecosystems and living beings, and their self-organisation.

Will the rest of the world come to its senses and follow Bolivia's lead? One can only hope. It's our own survival at stake.

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