Taranaki Maunga, or Mount Taranaki (formerly known as Mt. Egmont when the original name was changed by colonialists), is sacred to the Māori of New Zealand. Now, that landmark, snow-capped volcano second highest in New Zealand at 8,261 feet (2,518 meters), has achieved legal personhood. With the ruling this month, Taranaki Maunga’s empowerment law – Te Kāhui Tupua – will be safeguarded by a four member team appointment by the Conservation Ministry.
Taranaki Maunga joins the Whanganui River, New Zealand body of water recognized as a legal person in 2017. Three years earlier, Te Urewera, a forest on North Island, achieved legal personhood status.
While New Zealand might be the first country to recognize special areas of nature as people, it is not alone. Bolivia declared the legal rights of nature in 2010, and in the US, Lake Erie proposed protection and rights.
This era of climate change, and in some countries the executive orders renaming of mountains and bodies of water, can the sustainability and health of critical natural resources achieve greater protection through establishing rights of nature? For example, should rivers in drought locations receive legal protection? Is there an area of natural resources near you that merits protection for sustainability?
Associated Press. “A New Zealand mountain has been granted personhood.” 30 January 2025. CNN. https://www.cnn.com/2025/01/30/travel/mount-taranaki-personhood-new-zealand-intl-hnk
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Te Awa Tupua (Whanganui River Claims Settlement Bill). 20 March 2017. https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2017/0007/latest/whole.html
US and México. “Utilization of the Waters of the Colorado River and Tijuana Rivers and of the Rio Grand between the United States of America and México. 3 February 1944. https://www.usbr.gov/lc/region/g1000/lawofrvr.html
US Department of the Interior. “Review of the Colorado River Interim Guidelines for Lower Basin Shortages and Coordinated Operations for Lake Powell and Lake Mead: Upper and Lower Colorado Basin Regions.” December 2020. https://www.usbr.gov/ColoradoRiverBasin/documents/7.D.Review_FinalReport_12-18-2020.pdf
Building the World Blog by Kathleen Lusk Brooke and Zoe G. Quinn is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 U
