Currently Britain’s environmental regulations consider nature as an object of commerce within the law, and this poses a barrier to the efficient protection of ecosystems. Existing models of protecting nature are failing, as they serve to regulate nature’s destruction rather than prevent it. They tend to adopt a capitalistic approach which does not protect the environment because it involves a further commodification of nature’s ecosystems. The only answer to the problem is to give formal recognition to the Rights of Nature, challenging the leading anthropocentric idea that nature is ours to consume. Photo credit: Pablo Fernández via Flickr
