Rights of Nature

For coastal communities living alongside mangrove forests, the relationship with the Ocean does not begin at the shoreline. It begins in the muddy, tangled roots where freshwater meets salt, where nurseries for marine life form, and where plastic waste and persistent organic pollutants (POPs) increasingly accumulate, threatening ecosystem health and community wellbeing. This presentation argues that mangroves, as living thresholds between land and ocean, offer the most powerful entry point for informal education that reconnects communities, especially youth, with a non-anthropocentric understanding of marine ecosystems, while confronting the pollution degrading these nurseries. Drawing on case studies from mangrove-dependent communities, the talk presents immersive practices such as guided mangrove walks, mud-crab tracking, and community-led plastic and POPs monitoring patrols that teach ecological interdependence and pollution literacy before introducing the legal language of rights, so Ocean Rights are first felt as lived relationship rather than abstract policy. It highlights initiatives where local knowledge holders and youth have co-created "mangrove guardianship" programs, local charters recognizing mangrove rights, and community-led clean-up and source-reduction efforts targeting plastics and POPs. These grassroots efforts are framed as local expressions of, and advocacy tools for, existing international obligations, including the Basel, Rotterdam, and Stockholm Conventions, the Ramsar Convention, regional seas conventions, and the emerging global plastics treaty, positioning mangrove communities as frontline implementers of these frameworks. The proposal outlines a replicable toolkit, including mangrove apprenticeships, pollution-tracking citizen science, storytelling circles rooted in local cosmogonies, and youth mangrove tribunals, for other coastal communities to advocate for legal recognition and pollution-free stewardship. It closes with policy recommendations for embedding mangrove-based, pollution-aware informal education into local and national legislation, positioning mangroves not as buffers to be managed, but as rights-bearing, toxin-free gateways through which recognition of Ocean Rights, and compliance with international commitments, can take root.

Why do societies remain largely inactive in the face of climate change and biodiversity loss? I argue that part of the answer lies in the extraordinary success of the mental models through which humans have learned to access resources, control nature, and ultimately model the world. Precisely because these models have been successful, they have generated overconfidence and become increasingly rigid, leaving us poorly equipped to recognize natural limits. Moving beyond anthropocentrism therefore requires more than transmitting knowledge about environmental problems. It requires rebuilding a relationship with nature. Drawing on cognitive science, anthropology and philosophy, I propose that informal education can help shift our relationship with nature from exploitation or even sacralization toward socialization: learning to perceive other living beings as part of a world of relationships in which humans themselves participate. Experiences of beauty, fragility and interconnectedness can help reshape our mental representations and reactivate care and responsibility. The objective is not simply to protect nature, but to rediscover that we are nature.