Book contents
- Indigenous Environmental Rights
- Transnational Environmental Law
- Indigenous Environmental Rights
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Contributors
- Foreword: Towards a Pluralistic Future for Indigenous Environmental Rights
- Preface by the Series Editors
- Introductory Remarks
- Part I Amidst International Human Rights Law and Environmental Legal Landscapes
- Part II Beyond the ‘Human’ in Indigenous Environmental Law?
- 3 Indigenous Law, Cosmovisions, and the Rights of Nature
- 4 The Rights of Nature and the Right to Territory of Indigenous Peoples
- 5 Rights of Nature
- Part III Decolonizing the Law
- Index
- References
5 - Rights of Nature
The Biocultural Approach and Indigenous Customary Law in Latin America
from Part II - Beyond the ‘Human’ in Indigenous Environmental Law?
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 June 2026
Book contents
- Indigenous Environmental Rights
- Transnational Environmental Law
- Indigenous Environmental Rights
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Contributors
- Foreword: Towards a Pluralistic Future for Indigenous Environmental Rights
- Preface by the Series Editors
- Introductory Remarks
- Part I Amidst International Human Rights Law and Environmental Legal Landscapes
- Part II Beyond the ‘Human’ in Indigenous Environmental Law?
- 3 Indigenous Law, Cosmovisions, and the Rights of Nature
- 4 The Rights of Nature and the Right to Territory of Indigenous Peoples
- 5 Rights of Nature
- Part III Decolonizing the Law
- Index
- References
Summary
The recent recognition of the Rights of Nature (RoN) in the legal sphere presents significant challenges in its implementation. In modern States, justice is predominantly a human domain, based on the assumption that only in this realm can objectivity supersede subjectivity, rationality override emotionality, and the social transcend the natural. Consequently, the recognition of the Rights of Nature has required judicial systems to strive to overcome anthropocentric perspectives in order to advance biocentric and ecocentric frameworks. However, a critical question arises: How can non-human entities be formally recognized as subjects of justice? What poses a challenge for Western justice systems seems to be inherent in Indigenous justice systems, where the spiritual, human, and natural realms are not compartmentalized. The nature-culture nexus has been integrated from the perspectives of communities that maintain direct relationships with and dependencies on land and water sources, highlighting the relevance of worldviews that transcend segmented anthropocentric perspectives. To shed light on these challenges, this chapter proposes a theoretical-methodological analysis grounded in political ontology and the biocultural approach, aiming to facilitate dialogue between State legal systems and Indigenous customary law. We argue that biocultural rights and the recognition of legal pluralism offer the advantage of recognizing the role of communities as interactive participants in their territories, presenting an alternative for the decolonization of the Rights of Nature.
Keywords
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- Indigenous Environmental RightsTowards a Holistic Regime, pp. 177 - 204Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2026
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