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France Universal Declaration of Tree Rights

France
Approved in 2019
National
Declaration
Rights Of Nature
Trees
Forest
Déclaration Universelle des Droits de L'arbre; French National Assembly; MP Delphine Batho (president of Génération écologie party)
Civil Society, Government

Summary

In 2018, the group Déclaration Universelle des Droits de L’arbre began a global petition to draft a universal declaration of tree rights. In 2019, the French National Assembly adopted its own version of the declaration spearheaded by Delphine Batho, president of the French political environmentalist party Génération écologie. The declaration recognized that a tree “should be respected throughout its life and have the right to develop and to reproduce freely, from its birth to its natural death, whether it be a town tree or a country tree. A tree should be considered as a subject of law, including when laws regarding human property are involved.”

Suggested Citation:
Kauffman, Craig, Catherine Haas, Alex Putzer, Shrishtee Bajpai, Kelsey Leonard, Elizabeth Macpherson, Pamela Martin, Alessandro Pelizzon & Linda Sheehan. Eco Jurisprudence Monitor. V2. 2025. Distributed by the Eco Jurisprudence Monitor.https://ecojurisprudence.org/initiatives/universal-declaration-of-tree-rights/.

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Legal Document

Universal Declaration of Tree Rights
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Additional Resources

Article - France proclaims trees should have rights
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Article - French National Assembly Moves Toward Giving Trees Rights As Sentient Beings
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