Sustainability Series: Rights of Nature and Our Built Environment

The Rights of Nature movement is organized around the belief that non-human species and the ecosystems that support them should have legal standing to resist and counter the negative environmental impacts of human economic and political systems.

What would a world that recognizes the Rights of Nature look like? How does it change the way we live in, develop, and care for our cities, parks and backyards when other species have a voice in how we design and build our environment?

Ann Kearsley is a registered landscape architect and urban designer based in Portland, ME. She is the owner of two landscape architecture practices: Ann Kearsley Design, a full-service landscape design firm, and No Man’s Land Design, a research studio focused on more-than-human landscapes. She teaches in the graduate landscape architecture program at the Rhode Island School of Design and lectures frequently on integrating ecological restoration techniques with landscape planning, design, and construction. Her current research investigates the potential for Rights of Nature legal challenges to create a framework for a more equitable and cooperative inter-species sharing of our planet.

Portland’s Sustainability Series is co-hosted by the Portland Public Library and Momentum Conservation (formerly Southern Maine Conservation Collaborative). Sustainability is the endurance of systems and processes through time. The Portland Sustainability Series presents a diversity of speakers to share different aspects of the work moving Maine to greater endurance and sustainability. Please join us as we engage in these important issues and conversations!

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