In a historic development, the Government of Panama and For Nature have signed a memorandum of understanding to jointly advance the adoption of a Universal Declaration of the Rights of Nature before the United Nations General Assembly. The agreement, formalized in Panama City on April 10, marks a significant escalation of a movement that began six years ago when a marine biologist with no legal background walked into a congressman’s office with an idea.
That biologist was Callie Veelenturf. The idea became law. And now, Panama is attempting to make it the world’s standard.
From Law 287 to the General Assembly
When Panama passed Law 287 in February 2022, it became one of the few nations on earth to recognize nature as a legal subject with enforceable rights. The law recognized nature’s right to exist, persist, regenerate, and be restored, and it gave any citizen of any nationality standing to defend those rights in court. When Panama’s Supreme Court invoked Law 287 to strike down a $10 billion copper mining contract in November 2023, the legal framework passed its most consequential test.
The new MOU with For Nature, Veelenturf’s organization, is the next move. As the first country in Latin America to carry its domestic Rights of Nature framework into a formal multilateral initiative, Panama is taking an important step in elevating this legal and ethical paradigm onto the global stage.
“Panama is not signing a document. Panama is signing a commitment to the future,” said Juan Carlos Navarro, Minister of Environment for the Republic of Panama. “The nature of this country does not belong only to us. It belongs to those who come after us, and this agreement is how we protect it.”
Veelenturf: From Field to Framework
Veelenturf first proposed the concept of a Panama Rights of Nature law in 2020 after years studying sea turtles in the Pearl Islands archipelago. She had watched firsthand as plastic pollution, fishing bycatch, and habitat destruction threatened ecosystems that had no legal standing to defend themselves. She took the idea to Congressperson Juan Diego Vásquez and Panama’s first lady with no legal training and no expectation of success. Within two years, it was national law.
The founding of For Nature extended that work into an international advocacy and legal organization. “This is a historic and deeply hopeful moment for the Rights of Nature movement,” said Veelenturf. “Panama has already demonstrated global leadership by recognizing Nature as a subject of rights in its own laws, and now it is bringing that vision to the world stage at a moment when science makes clear that incremental change is no longer enough. By advancing a Universal Declaration at the United Nations, Panama is helping to catalyze a global movement that redefines humanity’s relationship with the natural world. This is how we move from isolated progress to lasting, systemic change.”
Funding and Institutional Backing
The initiative is being funded in full by the Alfred Kobacker and Elizabeth Trimbach Fund (AKET Fund) in partnership with the National Geographic Society. The full three-year budget commitment is notable. Advocacy campaigns targeting UN General Assembly resolutions are expensive, slow-moving, and rarely fully funded at the outset.
“The Rights of Nature is not an abstract idea, it is a necessary evolution in how humanity understands its place in the living world,” said Alfred Kobacker and Elizabeth Trimbach. “Panama’s leadership at the United Nations signals that this shift is no longer theoretical. It is underway.” natlawreview
What a Universal Declaration Would Mean
The agreement is expected to help build international momentum toward a Universal Declaration of the Rights of Nature, an effort aimed at establishing a shared global framework recognizing that ecosystems, species, and natural systems possess inherent rights, including the rights to exist, persist, regenerate, and be restored.
A UN General Assembly declaration would not carry the binding force of a treaty, but its symbolic and normative weight would be substantial. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted in 1948 as a non-binding resolution, shaped decades of international law and domestic constitutional reform. A parallel declaration for nature would provide legal architects in any signatory country with a powerful reference point, and would accelerate the adoption of Rights of Nature frameworks in jurisdictions that lack the political infrastructure to pioneer them independently.
The Rights of Nature movement has already gained traction across over 40 countries, rooted in Indigenous worldviews and advanced through decades of legal and philosophical development, including Ecuador’s constitutional recognition in 2008.
Strategic Implications
For governments, institutional investors, and multilateral bodies navigating the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, this development deserves attention. Panama’s domestic law has already proven that Rights of Nature provisions can be operationalized by courts to override extractive industry contracts. A UN-level declaration would put that precedent in front of every member state.
The timing is also significant. Panama is advancing this initiative while the UN General Assembly and Climate Week New York converge in September, a period when international environmental commitments carry maximum visibility and diplomatic leverage. Veelenturf and Panama’s Environment Ministry are positioning themselves at the center of what could become one of the defining environmental law debates of this decade.
The arc from a turtle researcher in the Pearl Islands to the floor of the United Nations is, in its own way, a case study in how systemic change actually moves: through individuals who understand the science, build unlikely coalitions, and refuse to accept that legal systems cannot keep pace with ecological reality.
