Rights of Nature Council Motions on the Island of Ireland

This briefing will explore the practical process of how Rights of Nature Council Motions came to be passed on the island (including consideration of differences in powers, composition, and mandates of local councils north and south of the border in Ireland), barriers to their implementation considering local councils have limited legislative powers and what the next steps might be for developing rights of nature at local government level on the island of Ireland. The paper is based on informal, semi-structured interviews with a small group of key players who played active roles in progressing the adoption of RoN council motions across the Island, including councillors, community groups and NGOs. The questions we explored centred on the process of bringing a motion, the key individuals/organisations involved, barriers/obstacles to the process, factors which contributed to a favourable/unfavourable outcome and advice for others considering advocating for a rights of nature motion in other council areas. It should be noted that this paper is an exploratory study based on informal interviews with a small number of people involved in the three RoN motions passed so far on the island about their practical experience.