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Aerial top view of summer green trees in forest in rural Finland.
Humanize From Discovery Institute's Center on Human Exceptionalism
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World Economic Forum Pushes “Forest Rights”

Originally published at National Review
Categories
Nature and Conservation

Our betters among the elites are increasingly embracing nature rights and its derivatives. Latest example: An editorial published by the World Economic Forum pushes “forest rights.” The Earth is burning and the fault is — ta-da! — capitalism! From, “Reimagining Capitalism — Giving Forests Legal Rights”:

Capitalism, of course has, in many aspects, brought about incredible progress. Industrialization and globalization have propelled advances in life expectancy, education, and social welfare. But does this narrative still hold true? For the first time, GDP diverges from well-being indices in many nations. This exposes a system that not only engineers its own demise, but threatens humanity and the natural environment.

Has this unnamed editorialist ever been to China? That anti-capitalist utopia has air so thick with soot it seeps into every environment. Its emissions are increasing, while those of the U.S. and much of the West are abating. More to the point, proper environmental standards go hand in hand with regulated capitalism because of the wealth that system produces.

The editorial worries about deforestation. That’s a problem, to be sure. But the “model” pushed in the editorial would seem to prevent all use of forest resources:

Gabon is taking a totally different approach. Untouched and vibrant, its forests are excluded from the United Nation’s REDD+ financing model (a programme aimed at reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries), making them wholly unavailable for exploitation. Gabon’s example of responsible forest management challenges our distorted paradigm that focuses on capital gains and “booty.” Amid escalating deforestation in neighbouring nations, Gabon’s pristine woods flourish. Shouldn’t we reward and replicate this approach?

To what extent? The editorial doesn’t say. But it advocates that forests be personalized and be deemed rights-bearing entities:

Replicating this approach elsewhere requires a complete ideological shift about how we see forests. We must reshape the relationship between capitalism and life itself. A groundbreaking concept is emerging — bestowing legal personality upon forests, enabling them to act as legal persons in global discourse. . . . This approach can guide us toward a renewed dialogue. Our forests are not mere resources but as representatives demanding their rightful voice.

Irrationality is not a proper policy prescription. Forests can’t “demand” anything. They are not conscious. They are forests.

This editorial should be a matter of great concern, because for better or worse — I believe the latter — special-interest groups like the WEF exert undue power in policy-making. That granting rights to forests is seriously embraced at this level illustrates the increasing potency of the nature-rights movement.

The editorial concludes with veiled anti-capitalism mixed with neo-pagan mysticism:

The approach of legal personality isn’t an idealistic idea only — it’s a path illuminated by history’s greatest thinkers. As capitalism faces an existential crossroads, it’s high time to embrace nature’s wisdom. Gabon’s example is profound: we must forge a capitalism that comprehends natural limits and respects the planet. The question isn’t whether we can — it’s whether we will.

Nature isn’t a being. It doesn’t possess “wisdom.” Only people do. Let’s hope we possess enough of that attribute to reject nature rights and its derivatives out of hand.

Wesley J. Smith

Chair and Senior Fellow, Center on Human Exceptionalism
Wesley J. Smith is Chair and Senior Fellow at the Discovery Institute’s Center on Human Exceptionalism. Wesley is a contributor to National Review and is the author of 14 books, in recent years focusing on human dignity, liberty, and equality. Wesley has been recognized as one of America’s premier public intellectuals on bioethics by National Journal and has been honored by the Human Life Foundation as a “Great Defender of Life” for his work against suicide and euthanasia. Wesley’s most recent book is Culture of Death: The Age of “Do Harm” Medicine, a warning about the dangers to patients of the modern bioethics movement.