Summary
On June 13, 2024, the Goiás City Council in Brazil unanimously approved a bill granting legal rights to the Vermelho River in the municipality of Goiás. The law classifies the Vermelho River as a specially protected entity and recognizes it as a subject of rights – a legal status that demands adequate environmental protection measures and a necessary cultural change in concepts about nature. These rights include: maintaining its natural flow and in sufficient quantity to guarantee the health of the ecosystem; to nourish and be nourished by the surrounding forests and endemic biodiversity; to exist with adequate physical and chemical conditions for its ecological balance; to interrelate with human beings through biocultural identification, spiritual practices, leisure, artisanal fishing, agroecology and culture.
Under the legal framework, a Guardian Committee will be created – made up of one representative from the City Council, one from the Municipal Council for the Defense of the Environment, one from a higher education institution operating in the municipality, and one from civil society – “which will monitor, oversee and take action to ensure that the Vermelho River is in fact cleaned up, that the watershed is preserved and that there is a permanent care agenda and not just on special occasions.” Every year the committee must present a report on the condition of the river and an action plan. The law also established the Municipal Day of the Vermelho River and the Municipal Week of the Vermelho River, to be celebrated on November 4.
The legal framework was inspired by the pioneering initiative of Rio Laje, in Rondônia, the first in Brazil to have its rights recognized by a law.