Tracker FAQ

Ecological jurisprudence refers to the contemporary global trend within legal theory and practice that rejects the anthropocentric assumptions traditionally underpinning much of the dominant legal traditions of the past few centuries. It encompasses rights of Nature and environmental personhood initiatives, the theory of Earth Jurisprudence, Wild Law and Earth Law/Laws, as well as ecocide, ecological civilization, ecological constitutionalism, place-based ecological governance approaches and Traditional Ecological Knowledge, a host of theoretical lenses such as (among the most notable) Ecological Law and Governance, Earth System Law, Earth System Governance, and Eco-feminism, a dialogue with Indigenous and non-Western legal traditions as to the ideas of both ‘Nature’ and ‘law’, and any other legal theory and praxis in direct juxtaposition to an anthropocentric worldview.

Clicking on the information icon in the top right of each chart opens a window that defines the concepts displayed in that chart. You can also find the definitions for all the categories we use in the Tracker in our Tracker Codebook. 

When designing the Eco Jurisprudence Tracker, it was important to us to try to provide a decolonized map, to the extent possible, to be consistent with our ethic of inclusion. We sought to demonstrate our commitment to a decolonized map in three ways: (1) using a projection that is not centered on Europe and/or is “inverted” by showing the Southern Hemisphere on top; (2) using a projection that does not distort certain regions, but portrays them all equally; and (3) providing the option for users to select between a traditional political map (showing political boundaries) and a physical map that does not contain human-made boundaries, and so emphasizes Nature.

In practice, we are limited by certain budgetary and technology limitations that require us to use already established map projection packages, in order to have the user accessibility and interaction features that we want. These and other technical reasons meant we are limited to the projections available on Mapbox.com. Of the available map projects, we believe the Equal Earth Projection provides the best compromise between our desire to use a decolonized map and the need to use existing mapbox projections to provide high quality accessibility and interactive features. The advantage of this map is that it does not distort the areas of the poles compared to the ones near the equator (like the conventional Mercatur Projection does), presenting all regions equally accurately. It also allows us to provide both a physical map and political map. The downside is that we cannot invert the map or re-center it away from its center on Greenwich.

The orange circles indicate individual initiatives or clusters of initiatives within a geographic location. The number within each circle indicates the number of initiatives in that geographic location. Circles without a number represent one individual initiative. The size of the circle increases as the number of initiatives increases. As you zoom in on the map, the larger circles will break apart into smaller clusters of initiatives until individual initiatives are shown.

Clicking on an orange circle with a number will automatically zoom the map in until the circle breaks apart into separate initiatives and/or smaller clusters of initiatives. Clicking on a blank circle will open a window with summary information about that initiative as well as a link to a separate initiative page that will provide more detailed information and access to related legal documents.

Yes, you can click on the orange bar labeled “Filter by Type” on the bottom right of the map and then select the type of ecological jurisprudence initiatives you would like to be displayed on the map.

To keep the entire dashboard visible without scrolling, we designed it to have two charts open at a time. To open a chart, click on the black bar with the chart title. This will open that chart and automatically close one of the previously opened charts. The dashboard will always display the two most-recently opened charts. 

Hovering over the colored bars in each chart will display the number of initiatives represented by that colored bar.

We recognize that there are different notions of time and that not all time is based on a linear perspective. Nevertheless, we provide this timeline is to show the relatively recent growth in the number of initiatives to apply ecological jurisprudence as a way to illustrate the strengthening of social movements advocating ecological jurisprudence around the world. The Eco Jurisprudence Tracker includes many initiatives that pre-date 1990, and we recognize that communities of Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples have systems of customary law that are consistent with ecological jurisprudence principles and that date back many generations. We chose to begin this timeline at 1990 to make the rapid increase in ecological law post-2000 more easily visible.

Yes, you can access a printable version of the map and charts here.

Yes, you may download the Eco Jurisprudence Tracker dataset here. To access the dataset you must provide some information that allows us to track how the information is being used. Please note that the Eco Jurisprudence Tracker dataset is covered by Creative Commons license Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).

Whenever you publish research or present results based on information obtained from the Eco Jurisprudence Tracker, please include the following acknowledgement or an appropriate equivalent:

“We wish to thank the Eco Jurisprudence Monitor for providing the data on ecological jurisprudence initiatives used in this paper. The Eco Jurisprudence Monitor was created through collaboration among an international team of independent researchers affiliated with the Academic Hub of the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature. The project was funded by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund.”

When publishing results based on the Eco Jurisprudence Tracker, please also include a citation for the dataset itself, such as the following:

The Eco Jurisprudence Monitor team does its best to identify ecological jurisprudence initiatives and portray accurate information about them. However, we recognize that we may miss initiatives and that our information can become out of date over time. If you find any errors or omissions, please report them to info@ecojurisprudence.org. You may also report them by clicking on the “Report an Initiative” button on the top right of the map on the Tracker page.