Does Nature have the right to legal personality?

, There is a movement going on around the world that deserves more attention than it is getting now. This month, the Spanish Inland Sea Mar Menor granted legal personality by the Spanish Parliament. Legal personality for an ecosystem: unique in Europe, but has been shown more often in many other countries. For example, in recent years, rivers, mountains and forests in Canada, New Zealand and Panama personal rights granted. Usually in the form of a legal guardian who acts in court as a representative of the ecosystem if it is threatened or compromised.

WWF rings alarm about biodiversity: “68 percent of animals surveyed disappeared in less than half a century” Saying that biodiversity or species richness on Earth is like kicking in an open door, but it is once again demonstrated in the new “Living Planet Report “of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF): 68 percent of the animals that the WWF monitors disappeared from the Earth between 1970 and 2016. In the previous report (from 2018, includes figures up to 2014), the WWF had calculated that 67 percent of the animals would have disappeared by this year.

But that figure was in reality already outdated in 2016, as the new report shows. A close look at 4,392 animal species. In the new report, the WWF looked at data about 4,392 animal species spread across 20,811 populations. It's about mammals, birds, fish, reptiles and amphibians . On average, 68 percent of the populations between 1970 and 2016 vanished .

One in five reptiles is threatened with extinction . This is shown by an extensive survey of the state of more than 10,000 reptile species around the world. Scientists call for immediate protection, especially crocodiles and turtles, who are having an extremely difficult time.

Danger ecosystems due to massive decline in number of large predators
Globally, ecosystems are under pressure. Recent research has shown how important large predators are to ecosystems, and unfortunately, these animals also have to fight to survive. Because populations of large predators are deteriorating so much, it has major consequences for the biodiversity of mammals, birds and invertebrates, but also on vegetation and climate change. Oregon State University scientists now call for global initiative to protect these animals.