Brazil granted wave rights to save

It’s the first ocean ecosystem with legal personality, but the wave joins others.

Clearly, we must protect our ecosystems. If necessary, it is given legal personhood. The Murcian lagoon was the first ecosystem in Europe to have a legal personality. Similar thing happened with Mar Menor lagoon. In another historic move, a small ocean stretch with impressive waves has rights.

The news. Surfers from around the world visit Linhares, Brazil. They recently prioritised the city’s coastline to protect it. The city council granted legal personality to the waves at the mouth of the Doce River and the connected sea in June 2024, marking the first time that an ocean area was protected.

The new law, which took effect in mid-August, protects wave ecology and related waters. Thus, it protects their physical (and chemical) conditions from human interference, including pollution.

Is this possible? It is. Cornell Law School defines legal person as “a human or nonhuman legal entity that is treated as a person for legal purposes.” These bodies can sue and contract like residents.

The new law protects the Linhares coast river’s physical form, chemical composition, and ecological conditions. Thus, the city must acknowledge water’s cultural and economic value. It even appointed “guardians” to protect and represent the entity in public decision-making, a committee with surfing, indigenous, and Linhares city council environmental committee members.

Pollution matters. After the Mariana dam collapse in November 2015 and the Fundão dam collapse, the legislative measure took shape. After a massive iron ore waste and mud flood in southeastern Brazil, 19 people died and 600 were displaced.

In the Doce River, waste caused massive fish kills and vegetation loss. Beyond that. The mud weakened the river’s waves until 2022, when another flood restored them. Hakai magazine says this law aims to “change mentalities and modify public policies” on water quality and resource extraction.

A wave has rights. The Linhares administration says it too, emphasising that it’s not just about waves and their ecosystems. Waves can also “foster harmonious interactions with humans through cultural, spiritual, leisure and ecological practices.”

Maintaining the “ecosystem” and preventing accidents like Mariana’s is the goal. As Vanessa Hasson, an environmental lawyer and executive director of the Brazilian NGO Mapas, told Hakai magazine, it was included to recognise the waves’ cultural and economic importance in the surfing community.

Oceans are legal persons. While this is the first time a government body has granted legal rights to a part of the ocean, it is not the first time a body of water has been granted legal personhood. The Whanganui River in New Zealand was the first river to be granted human-like legal rights, followed by the Magpie in Canada, the Klamath in the US, and the Ganges and Yamuna in India (although India’s Supreme Court overturned the decision).

Ecuador, for example, has enshrined nature rights in its constitution since 2008 and takes violations seriously. Last July, a court ruled that pollution violated the rights of a river in the capital and ordered immediate action.

Nature’s rights. It shows environmental protection. Due to biodiversity loss, the idea of granting legal rights to nature has emerged to protect ecosystems by recognising their intrinsic value.

Professor Christopher Stone proposed the utopian idea in 1972, but it has gained traction in recent decades. Other enclaves with rights will follow the Mar Menor Lagoon, Linhares, Whanganui, Klamath, and Ganges, which are just symptoms of the biodiversity loss ravaging our planet.

Brazil granted wave rights to save

It’s the first ocean ecosystem with legal personality, but the wave joins others.

By knl9j

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