Mar Menor lagoon: the first ecosystem in Europe to be granted legal status
The Spanish Parliament has just taken the final step to approve the law that recognises the Mar Menor and its basin as having rights, among them the right to exist and the right to recover its natural balance. The law was approved in the Senate by an overwhelming majority.
The fact that the Mar Menor lagoon has been granted legal personhood is a historic milestone, not only because it has been a great victory for environmental defenders but because, in addition, it introduces an innovative legal concept into European law, a precedent upon which more cases are sure to follow. The continent’s largest saltwater lagoon has been suffering continuous ecocide for decades, leading to the collapse of life within it. None of the established protections, national or international, had served to halt the tragedy. Victory was achieved through massive citizen mobilization, activated through the launch of a People’s Legislative Initiative (ILP). This involved collecting over 650,000 signatures by hand across Spain, when in fact only 500,000 were needed - and all this during the pandemic. The scandalous case of the cascading deterioration of the Mar Menor and the struggle of citizens to defend it crossed national borders and was even discussed in a UN forum within its Harmony with Nature programme.
In the words of one of the architects of the ILP, lawyer Eduardo Salazar: "The final approval of the ILP of the Mar Menor is a step forward in the recognition of the rights of non-human beings, in this case, an ecosystem full of life. A citizen reaction to ecocide in order to promote pioneering legislation in Europe that could be a reference for other ecosystems in other states. The participatory and judicial aspect of the ILP aims to ensure that the citizens who promoted it, take care of its effective application".
There are already a growing number of ecosystems in the world that have been granted legal status as a way of protection, from the Atrato River in Colombia to the Whanganui River and the Taranaki Mountain in Aotearoaa-New Zealand or the Magpie River in Canada.
Granting rights is an effective tool in the protection of high-value ecosystems, but more is needed: an international criminal law to protect the natural world from the destruction it is suffering in many parts of the world. Granting rights to ecosystems and establishing laws to protect them are two sides of the same coin. It is therefore essential to advance the criminalisation of ecocide at the international level, creating a law that covers all cases of serious environmental damage that are either extensive or long-term. At the moment, we are on the right track. Today we celebrate this great victory, a huge step towards where, ethically and legally, we must go.