A Canadian town has officially recognized trees as living beings with their own rights, with the mayor dubbing them “our biggest ally.”
Terrasse-Vaudreuil, a municipality just 40 miles west of Montreal, declared that trees have “the right to life, to natural growth, to integrity and regeneration”.
The resolution, which was obtained by CBC, was adopted by the town of around 2000 residents on June 9.
Mayor Michel Bourdeau told the broadcaster that the move was adopted unanimously by councillors and that he does not predict the plan causing any problems, such as interfering with development.
Under the new resolution, the town will review its existing rules and bylaws to ensure that trees are protected or replaced if they are cut down.
Bourdeau, whose town has been flooded three times in recent years, noted that the trees are “our biggest ally” in fighting climate change.
“Trees are a true green infrastructure,” he noted. “They help reduce urban heat islands, improve air quality, manage precious water resources and protect biodiversity.”
Quebec filmmaker André Desrocher inspired the community to take action through his film Des arbres et des arts, Bourdeau added. According to him, the movie convinced citizens that trees are living entities that breathe and can communicate with each other through their root systems.
“A tree is like a human being,” Bourdeau said. “It breathes, it lives, it takes in water. It protects us from all sorts of things.”
The International Observatory of Nature Rights says that the town is the first municipality in both Quebec and Canada to sign onto the Universal Declaration of the Rights of the Tree, an international initiative spearheaded by environmental groups.
The three core articles of the initiative suggested that life on Earth depends on the existence of trees, that humans must act in “fraternity and solidarity” with them, and that trees are living beings and a common human good.
Yenny Vega Cardenas, the president of the International Observatory of Nature Rights, told CBC that trees have “dignity” and “senses.”
Clarifying, she said, “Not sentiments, but senses.”
According to her, the declaration on tree rights is part of the same push that has seen rights being given to rivers and other natural areas across the world.
In Canada, for example, Quebec’s Magpie River was granted legal personhood by a regional government and the Innu Council of Ekuanitshit in 2021.
Karine Peloffy, a lawyer with Ecojustice, described the choice to recognize the rights of trees as a “very hopeful gesture.”
“We know corporations have legal personhood and rights, and they are definitely not living,” she told CBC. “So if some nonliving things can have legal personhood, what’s stopping living beings from equally getting legal personhood?”
