Nature is a political actor
More than human rights have a crucial role to play in both emerging technology and sustainable agriculture.
The recent statement by Izabella Teixeira, the former Brazilian minister of the environment, that nature is a political actor could not be more timely. Regardless of its immediate implications for discussions at COP30, framing nature as a political actor brings two fundamental issues to the forefront. The first speaks to ethical norms and has important legal consequences regarding the “rights of nature.” The second is of practical interest and should be examined in light of the essential question posed by Paul Hawken in his important and recently released book, Carbon: The Book of Life: do current economic activities result in more or less life?
Why should we preserve the spotted owl? This is the question posed by Amartya Sen in an article published in the London Review of Books in 2004. This animal brings no apparent or immediate benefit to human well-being, yet we still should not allow its extinction for reasons that have nothing to do with our own standard of living. Sen draws on the teachings of Gautama Buddha to argue that because we are far more powerful than other species, it is our responsibility to reduce that asymmetry.
Recognizing the rights of nature paves the way toward this goal. Since 2019, the Eco Jurisprudence Monitor has documented 684 initiatives in 63 countries (and counting), providing a vast amount of documentation. In 2024, for instance, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the resolution “Harmony with nature,” stressing the urgent need to align human activities with natural processes.
More than human rights and technology
More Than Human Rights (MOTH) is a program at New York University that is led by César Garavito, a professor and activist who helped organize a successful movement in his native Colombia: children petitioning the Supreme Court to ensure that public policies prioritize preventing climate change from harming future quality of life. His work in human rights eventually led him to create MOTH alongside Merlin Sheldrake (a young biologist whose book Entangled Life sold over a million copies worldwide), scholars from various disciplines, musicians, and Indigenous leaders.
Anyone who thinks this is a “tree-hugger” cause, somehow opposed to technical progress, may be surprised by the scientific advances in understanding nature that this movement is stimulating.”
Anyone who thinks this is a “tree-hugger” cause, somehow opposed to technical progress, may be surprised by the scientific advances in understanding nature that this movement is stimulating. In Time Magazine, Garavito and David Gruber published an article describing the use of machine learning, robotics, and bioacoustics to study nonhuman animal communication with impressive depth and accuracy. The use of unique names by elephants, moths’ ability to hear plant stress, and the decoding of sperm whale vocalizations—revealing a phonetic alphabet akin to the building blocks of human language—are just some areas where respect for more-than-human rights is pushing science forward.
Another field in which contemporary technologies are opening paths to understanding nature is arbuscular mycorrhiza—the formation of bush-shaped structures (arbuscules) within the cells of host plant roots, facilitating nutrient exchange. This is nature’s most important symbiotic partnership: fungi and plant roots, present in 70% of terrestrial plant species. MOTH participants recently published an article in Nature demonstrating the use of artificial intelligence to map this symbiotic relationship globally.
How the natural world acts politically
Galileo Galilei claimed that the language of nature was mathematical—that its letters are triangles, circles, and other geometric figures. The more-than-human rights movement breaks with this view, recognizing and respecting nature’s intelligence, capacities, and creativity. On the basis of these attributes, nature should be considered a political actor. Of course, treating nature as a political actor has practical consequences, especially for tropical countries where life is most abundant and diverse. It is essential to expand protected areas across different biomes and to guarantee the integrity of rivers and marine ecosystems.
For countries like those in Latin America, where livestock and agriculture occupy a large portion of the land and play a major economic role, the biggest challenge is introducing biodiversity within cultivated areas themselves.”
For countries like those in Latin America, where livestock and agriculture occupy a large portion of the land and play a major economic role, the biggest challenge is introducing biodiversity within cultivated areas themselves. The techniques that have underpinned the growth of Latin American grain farming, for example, depend on synthetic fertilizers, and their impact on the geochemical cycles of nitrogen and phosphorus has already crossed planetary boundaries. These crops’ dependence on pesticides threatens soil life. As this destruction accumulates, farmers must use ever greater quantities of harmful products to achieve the same yields. Costs rise, and productivity stagnates, posing a threat to both food security and the macroeconomic functions agricultural exports perform.
Next steps and the case of Brazil
Brazil is currently a global leader in the research and use of bio-inputs, defined as products or processes developed from enzymes, extracts (from plants or microorganisms), microorganisms, macroorganisms (invertebrates), secondary metabolites, and pheromones, intended for biological control. Moreover, Brazil is notable in its use of a suite of technologies specifically aimed at drastically reducing the use of death-dealing tools in favor of life-giving ones in agriculture and livestock production. But it is crucial that these death vectors be eliminated from productive landscapes as soon as possible.
The country that led the most important agricultural revolution in the tropical world by converting the Cerrado into farmland now has the responsibility of leading the global transition toward a healthy and sustainable agri-food system. That is what it means to recognize nature as a political actor.
