EARTHKEEPING NEWS
A NEWSLETTER OF THE NORTH AMERICAN COALITION FOR CHRISTIANITY AND ECOLOGY

Volume Eight, Number Four
May/June 1999

CHURCH GROUP WANTS 'BILL OF BIOTIC RIGHTS' FOR FORESTRY

by Tom Herschelman

Excerpts from a March 1999 letter by the Saron United Church of Christ Eco-Justice Task Force, Sheboygan Falls, to the Director of Wisconsin DNR Bureau of Forestry, regarding its Sustainable Forestry Legislative Initiative.

Dear Mr. Francisco,

Concerning the "Right to Practice Sustainable Forestry," the Saron United Church of Christ Eco-Justice Task Force wishes the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to address with equal fairness the rights of species and ecosystems. We feel a "right" that only recognizes the human perspective is shortsighted and not in God's vision. Only the formal recognition of a Bill of Biotic Rights in the final legislation will balance the interests of humans and the non-human native biodiversity of the ecosystems.

We believe the Bill of Biotic Rights directly addresses the concern of keeping God's creation intact and functioning. We call on the DNR to recognize this petition and to recognize this Bill in the upcoming legislation. Please recall that God recognized nature and the creation as being good, and commanded the creation to flourish, before humans were even created, so native biodiversity has special stature to God, separate from human considerations.

With the seventh Great Extinction of Species and Ecosystems occurring, it is past the time to shift the discussion from a human centered perspective of taming nature for economic-corporate interests, to an ecocentric perspective with standards for the protection of the rights and interests of wild species and ecosystems. Non-human animals and ecosystems should have formal standing1, granted by administrative or legislative means, with humans as the enforcers of their rights.

The following bill of Non-Human Rights applies to species in the wild ecosystems. These rights are justified claims on humans for the basic conditions necessary for the well being of otherkind. The bill is a general guide to ethical standards and a working, evolving document.

A Bill of Biotic Rights of Non-human Species2

by James A. Nash

  1. The right to participate in the natural dynamics for existence.
  2. The right to healthy and whole habitats.
  3. The right to reproduce their own kind without humanly induced chemical, radioactive, hybridized, or bio-engineered aberrations.
  4. The right to fulfill their evolutionary potential with freedom from human-induced extinctions.
  5. The right to freedom from human cruelty, flagrant abuse or profligate use.
  6. The right to reparations or restitution through managerial interventions to restore a semblance of natural conditions disrupted by human abuse.
  7. The right to a "fair share" of the goods necessary for individuals and species.

For more information write Tom Herschelman, W3238 Woodland Rd, Sheboygan Falls, WI 53085; 920-467-8311 evenings; <tombwca@tcbi.com>.

1. According to Emanual Law Outlines, '96-'97 edition: "When we say that a litigant must have 'standing' to assert his claim, we mean that he must have a significant stake in the controversy to merit his being the one to litigate it."

2. Taken from the publication of the Annual Society of Christian Ethics, 1993, in which Dr. James Nash updates chapter seven of his Loving Nature: Ecological Integrity and Christian Responsibility, Abingdon Press, Nashville TN 1991, in cooperation with The Churches' Center for Theology and Public Policy, Washington DC.

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