Advocacy
Building the legal framework, nation by nation
It started in Panama.
Long before there was a global movement for the Rights of Nature, there was a fight for national law. forNature's advocacy work began with Panama, where founder Callie Veelenturf worked alongside local partners to pass Law 287, Panama's national Rights of Nature law, followed by Law 371, a law protecting sea turtles and their habitat that also enshrined Rights of Nature protections. These weren't symbolic wins. They were proof that the Rights of Nature could move from concept to enforceable law, and that a country was willing to lead.
That proof is what made the next step possible.
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Panama's leadership, taken global.
Panama didn't stop at its own borders. In 2026, Panama signed a memorandum of understanding with forNature, committing to spend the next several years championing the Rights of Nature on the world stage: specifically, by leading the push for a United Nations Universal Declaration of the Rights of Nature.
This is a first. The Rights of Nature movement has worked to bring this idea into international policy since 2009, through the UN's Harmony with Nature program. Bolivia made an early attempt in 2011. But it took until 2026, and Panama's willingness to lead, for a country to take up the cause again, with the backing and technical support of forNature.
Where things stand now.
Together with Panama, we're working to add operative paragraphs to a UN resolution, language that would formally start the process toward a full Declaration on the Rights of Nature. If member states vote to include it, it opens a multi-year process to draft the declaration itself, guided by co-facilitators with input from more than 130 countries. If they don't, the Rights of Nature movement stays where it's been for over a decade: waiting for individual countries willing to take action.
Panama has already gone first once, becoming one of the first countries in the world to pass a national Rights of Nature law. Now, forNature is working to make sure that leadership carries all the way to a UN Universal Declaration of the Rights of Nature: the first time a multilateral organization has recognized that Nature itself has the right to exist, thrive, and regenerate.