In Bolivia, trees also have a right to life

By OKECH KENDO

Bolivia has realised the right to life may be meaningless in the long run if the ecosystem is not guaranteed the same rights, and legal protection.

It took President Evo Morale’s ruling party, the Movement Towards Socialism, to make Bolivians understand that everything on the planet is part of a big family.

This global family is built on mutually supporting relationships that must be nurtured to guarantee sustainable eco-balance.

President Morales, the first indigenous leader of Bolivia, is making a difference to environmental conservation.

Morales is the architect of legislation, the Law of Mother Earth that encourages conservation and reduction of pollution and exploitation of natural resources.

The Law of Mother Earth legislates new rights for nature, including the right to life; the right to water and clean air; the right to continue vital cycles and process free from human alternation.

There is also the right to repair lives destroyed by human activities, and the right to be free of pollution. The law protects living organisms from modification and genetic manipulation.

The law also protects Mother Earth from being undermined by "mega-infrastructure and development projects that affect the balance of ecosystems and the local inhabitant communities", reports NewsDay, Everyday News for Everyday People, Zimbabwean newspapers.

There is a context to the Bolivian law that gives trees, rivers, lakes, insects and other natural residents of the planet the right to life.

The poor South American country has seen its rural people experience massive crop failure and famine due to floods and droughts.

Very much like Kenya: Even with the planting season about two months on, real long rains are yet to set in the North Rift – the country’s breadbasket.

President Morales Government shall establish a ‘Ministry of Mother Earth’ to champion the ideals of the new law.

"It shall commit to give communities the authority to monitor and control the industries and businesses that pollute the environment," NewsDay reports.

Polluters to learn

The new law expects polluters to learn from the traditions of indigenous populations that have deep-rooted respect for the environment.

Bolivia has been vocal in demanding that developed countries contribute one per cent of their GDP to help poor and vulnerable nations cope with the effects of climate change.

"It makes world history. The Earth is the mother of all. The law establishes a new relationship between man and nature, the harmony of which must be preserved as a guarantee of its regeneration," Bolivian Vice-President, Avaro Garc’ia Linera, is quoted as saying.

The law is part of an indigenous world view that treats the environment as the nexus of life. It considers humanity equal to other earthlings.

Our own Bill of Rights may be meaningless if it does not treat the environment as the natural pillar for the right to life, food and water.

Such rights come with responsibility, including protection of the natural environment.

When God gave Adam the Garden of Eden the First Man was not supposed to desecrate it.

When he did and God noticed the plunder of the pristine environment, Adam refused to take responsibility.

Instead he told God: "It was the woman you gave me who messed it up".

Adam had initially accepted this woman as the flesh of his flesh. When accountability was wanted, she become "the woman you gave me" – a perfect scapegoat.

Last week, residents of Narok blocked the Mara-Mai Mahiu road in protest.

They were angry because two days of flash floods had ruined their businesses, farms and livelihoods. They forgot that they play a part in deciding how nature affects us.

But instead of taking responsibility for the plunder of the environment, they accused the local authority of failure to build better drainage for the low-lying, semi-arid town.

When it floods, Narok residents think the local authority is entirely to blame for their plight.

The smell of wasted fertilisers is effluent down the Mau Forest that has fallen prey to man’s high appetite for defiling the natural environment.

The rivers down the plain are drying up because the water tower has been robbed of its natural endowment.

Now we know if there is no ice in the mountains there will be no water in the plains, again, thanks to man’s high appetite for virgin land.

Felt on all sides

The dearth of the Mau Forest is being felt on all sides of the water tower. Down on the western side where numerous rivers that flow from here drain, there is another problem.

It is not that the rivers no longer flow to capacity. The water carries effluent that fertilises weeds in Lake Victoria.

The carpet of water hyacinth in the lake is glossy, green, and lush one would mistake it for lawns of the rehabilitated Kisumu Airport.

While the world’s former second largest fresh water lake is dying, the Minister of Environment is obsessed with reclaiming the Nairobi River, without a mention of the lifeline for millions of East Africans.

There is something to learn from Bolivia, even if the lesson is not as revolutionary as a Bill of Rights for other residents of Mother Earth.

The right to life for human beings is meaningless if it condones wanton destruction of the natural environment.

Writer is The Standard’s Managing Editor Quality and Production.

[email protected]