Bill of Rights ni James A. Nash (Environmental Law)

Nash outlines these moral claims as “biotic rights.” They are as follows.

1.      The right to participate in the natural dynamics of existence.

-     This is a right to flourish as nature provides this, without undue human alteration of the genetic or behavioral “otherness” of non-human creatures.

2.      The right to healthy and whole habitats.

-     The right to flourish on nature’s terms and contribute to the common ecological good assumes and requires that other kind enjoy the essential conditions which appropriate habitat provides.

3.      The right to reproduce their own kind without humanly-induced chemical, radioactive, hybridized, or bioengineered aberrations.

-     This right asks human respect for genetic integrity, evolutionary legacies, and ecological relationships. By implication, it demands and defends biodiversity.

4.      The right to fulfill their evolutionary potential with freedom from human-induced extinctions.

-     Extinctions are a natural part of evolutionary process, but human-induced extinctions are unjust. Humanity’s exercise of its power ought not to undermine the existence of viable populations of non-human species in healthy habitats until the end of their evolutionary time.

5.      The right to freedom from human cruelty, flagrant abuse, or profligate use.

-     Minimal harm to other kind within necessary usage ought to characterize human treatment of non-human life.

6.      The right to reparations or restitution through managerial interventions to restore a semblance of natural conditions disrupted by human abuse.

-     Because of human abuse of natural environments in the past, interventions are often necessary to enable a return to an approximation of previous ecosystem relationships.

7.      The right to a ‘fair share’ of the good necessary for individuals and species.

-      “Fair share” is, of course, a vague criterion. Yet it is possible to determine ways in which human populations can coexist with viable populations of humanly unthreatened species and thereby preserve for them a fair share of the shared ecological good.