The Confluence of European Waters was launched 18 September 2023 with a collective and symbolic proclamation of the united water bodies in front of the European Parliament in Bruxelles, introduced by Member of European Parliament Marie Toussaint and Erena Rhöse, a Māori woman native of Aotearoa (New Zealand).
Read the manifesto here:
To the people of Europe
We, the water bodies of Europe, are confluencing – flowing together – to demand attention for the many crises of water today. Non-human lives and ecosystems are insufficiently and ineffectively represented in international politics. This shortcoming jeopardizes life as we know it – human or otherwise – on a planetary scale. To assess this lack of representation in our democracies on the European agendas, rivers, lakes, lagoons, seas and glaciers are confluencing from all over the Continent to take crucial steps towards water emancipation. Functioning as a support system, a campaign and an interdisciplinary research group, the Confluence of European Water Bodies advocates for the recognition of water ecosystems as legal, cultural and political players in our democracy.
Recognition of ecosystemic rights
On the basis of the shifted conditions of coexistence between bodies of water and humans around our shared Planet, and specifically in the continent of Europe, we, the Confluence of European Water Bodies, declare the urgent need for recognition of ecosystemic rights, together with the development of a political representation that functions through a direct relation with humans. We lament the loss of connection between many humans and their surroundings, with the spreading of what has been defined as “shifting baseline syndrome”:[1] an intergenerational human forgetfulness of our bountiful biosphere, or the belief that the current depleted state of an ecosystem – aquatic or otherwise – is the only possible one. We aim to counter this epidemic, returning to weave a deeper relationship that may last beyond our current epoch.
Respecting the integrity of whole ecosystems
In opening our proclamation, we would like to quote a document, the Seed of Siena,[2] stating that: “Current laws and policies cannot stop the loss of biodiversity or the poisoning of soils, lands, waters and air, because they are grounded in the fiction of the natural world as property or ‘resources’ for human desires. The privatization, commodification and legalized enslavement of Nature as human and corporate property, the phantom economy based on speculation rather than actual production and the financialization of Nature, further expedite the destruction of ecosystems and lives.”
We stress the importance of the strong agency we always had in keeping the continent alive, flowing around it and meandering through it, also stated in the European Water Framework Directive’s[3] endeavours to allow us “to support wildlife at the same time as human needs” and adopting “an integrated approach to water management, respecting the integrity of whole ecosystems.”
Cultural and spiritual change
We witness an ongoing cultural and spiritual change, one that we hope will accompany a legal change that acknowledges our existence and takes our voices into account, moving beyond a system designed by humans to shape a human-only world.
We acknowledge the numerous biotic communities that depend directly on our health, and the recent Declaration of Rights of Rivers[4] that states our rights to flow, perform essential ecosystemic functions, be free from pollution, feed and be fed by sustainable aquifers, to host native biodiversity, and to regeneration and restoration.
River Whanganui
We are thankful for the presence among us of our Oceanian sister, the River Whanganui, and the close solidarity of numerous other bodies of water who currently hold a political voice in their community across all continents. “The great River flows from the mountains to the sea. I am the River, the River is me.”[5] With them, with us, Mother Nature herself stands – first legally acknowledged by humans through the constitution of Ecuador in 2008 under the name of Pacha Mama.[6]
Mar Menor
We applaud the success of the Mar Menor, our sister on the coast of the Mediterranean, who for the first time brought her voice to the political discourse in the first person. As the Ley 19/2022,[7] instituted on the 30th September of 2022, proclaims: “it is necessary to interpret the law and the subjects worthy of legal protection in accordance with the profound degree of ecological degradation in which the Mar Menor finds itself. Article 45 of our Constitution has been interpreted by the Supreme Court in the sense that Nature as an ecosystem is the unit that integrates the human being as another element and, therefore, the one that allows the development of the person.” On this basis, the need of the law is “to grant legal personhood to the Mar Menor lagoon ecosystem in order to endow it, as a subject of law, with a charter of rights of its own, based on its intrinsic ecological value and intergenerational solidarity, thus guaranteeing its protection for future generations.” The law further motivates this decision on the basis that “In the 21st century, the severe damage caused by the human development model forces us to expand our responsibilities towards the natural environment: to grant rights to natural entities.” We thus believe that the times are ripe for all bodies of water on the continent to follow such a legal path.
Plea for legal recognition
We praise the efforts of the Lewes District Council, being the first council in England to pass a motion seeking to declare a Rights of River Charter for the river Ouse. We encourage the commitment of MPs in the Netherlands to give the Wadden Sea legal personality. We appreciate the constitutional attempts of Italy to modify art. 9 and 41,[8] integrating the anthropocentric protection of the landscape with a broader, systemic protection of the environment, framing it “not as a mere commodity or competitive matter but as a primary and systemic value” and protecting it from irresponsible economic developments. We highlight the bravery of Snæfellsjökull, the first glacier to accept the invitation of humans to run for President in the island nation of Iceland. Embarking on a novel adventure in a political system alien to its nature, language, and overcoming their natural glacial shyness. And we encourage all other waters in Europe to plea for legal recognition.
Commons as shared heritage
We underline the vital role of water among the four Global Commons: from the depths of the High Seas to the icy lands of Antarctica, all the way to the Atmosphere. In this sharing of benefits and responsibilities, we perceive ourselves to be major stakeholders, equating to our efforts to maintain them in a healthy and bountiful state. We invite humanity to blur its boundaries, reframing the idea of “Commons” not as goods for mankind, but as a shared heritage of all kind, sustaining life itself and therefore transcending any monetary value.
We stretch back to older conceptions of rivers, in which our independence, living status, and personality were acknowledged. The memory of Achilles being chased at the gates of Troy by the personified river Skamandros,[9] speaking directly with him, is but an unfortunate moment of divergent opinions.
Concluding
In concluding our manifesto, we return to recall our boundless nature, extending from the most visible bodies of water to aquifers and glaciers, clouds and rains, sprays and droplets, as underlined by the teachings to which many humans have listened through their scientific studies, as translated by the laws that have been proclaimed for the Mar Menor and the Whanganui[10] among others.
We invite the people of Europe, and of the totality of Planet Earth, to reconnect with us. We are open and desire to continue sustaining life, to be meeting points for different species, to meander inland and connect different ecosystems. Visit us, bathe in our waters, spend time meditating and attune to our natural rhythms. You will become able to hear our voice, and create a sentimental connection with our diverse forms and manifestations. We invite you to open yourselves up to the possibility of seeing us as entities with our own rights, representation, dignity and independence.
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[1] The concept was first brought up by fisheries scientist Daniel Pauly in “Anecdotes and the shifting baseline syndrome of fisheries”, in Trends in Ecology and Evolution, vol. 10 n. 10, 1995
[2] Global Alliance for Rights of Nature, The Seed of Siena, 2023.
[3] Read more here
[4] The Universal Declaration of Rights of Rivers was launched in 2022 by the Earth Law Center and International Rivers, its full version and more information about the campaign is accessible here
[5] This principle is embedded in point 70 of Te Awa Tupua (The Whanganui River Claims Settlement) Act 2017, in which “The Crown recognises through this settlement that Te Awa Tupua embodies the Whanganui River as an indivisible whole from the mountains to the sea and the inalienable interconnection between the iwi and hapū of Whanganui and the Whanganui River, as expressed in the Whanganui pepeha “E rere kau mai te Awa nui, mai i te Kāhui Maunga ki Tangaroa. Ko au te awa, ko te awa ko au” (“The Great River flows from the mountains to the sea. I am the River and the River is me”).” Accessible online here
[6] The seventh chapter of the constitution is titled “Derechos de la naturaleza” (Rights of Nature) and specifically in art. 71 and 72 states that “Nature, or Pacha Mama, where life is reproduced and occurs has the right to integral respect for her existence and for the maintenance and regeneration of her life cycles, structure, functions and evolutionary processes. All persons, communities, peoples and nations can call upon public authorities to enforce the rights of nature.” The constitution, in Spanish, is accessible online here
[7] The law is accessible online here
[8] The amendments to the two constitutional articles are accessible, in Italian here
[9] In Book XXI of the Ilyad, Achilles throws the bodies of his Trojan enemies in the river Skamandros until “he would have slain yet others, had not the river in anger taken human form, and spoken to him from out the deep waters saying, “Achilles, if you excel all in strength, so do you also in wickedness, […] My fair waters are now filled with corpses, nor can I find any channel by which I may pour myself into the sea for I am choked with dead, and yet you go on mercilessly slaying. I am in despair, therefore, O captain of your host, trouble me no further.” Skamandros then attacks Achilles, who fears for his life and flees, “for the Gods are stronger than men”, but is eventually saved by other Gods.
[10] The Whanganui Act’s point 12 declares that “Te Awa Tupua is an indivisible and living whole, comprising the Whanganui River from the mountains to the sea, incorporating all its physical and metaphysical elements.” while the Mar Menor Law’s point 1 declares that by Mar Menor we mean: “La unidad biogeográfica constituida por un gran plano inclinado de 1.600 km2 con dirección noroeste-sureste, limitado al norte y noroeste por las últimas estribaciones orientales de las cordilleras Béticas constituidas por las sierras pre-litorales […], y al sur y suroeste por sierras litorales […], e incluyendo la cuenca hídrica y sus redes de drenaje […].