A small city in rural Canada has officially recognised trees as living beings possessing their own rights, with the mayor dubbing them ‘our biggest ally’ in tackling the climate crisis.
Terrasse-Vaudreuil, 70km west of Montreal and will a population of around 2,000, declared that trees have ‘the right to life, to natural growth, to integrity and regeneration’.
Mayor Michel Bourdeau said the move was adopted unanimously by councillors and the town will review its existing rules and bylaws to ensure that trees are protected or replaced if they are cut down.
Bourdeau, whose mainly French-speaking city has been flooded three times in recent years, noted that the trees are ‘our biggest ally’ in fighting climate change.
‘Trees are a true green infrastructure,’ he said. ‘They help reduce urban heat islands, improve air quality, manage precious water resources and protect biodiversity.’
Quebec filmmaker André Desrocher inspired the community to take action through his film Des Arbres et des Arts (Trees and the Arts) which was screened in the city..
Desrochers said: ‘With this film, I took on the challenge of helping to transform our “egocentric” vision into an “ecocentric” community, where humans recognise themselves as an integral part of life rather than its centre.’
Bourdeau explained that the movie convinced citizens that trees are living entities that breathe and can communicate with each other through their root systems.
‘A tree is like a human being,’ the mayor said. ‘It breathes, it lives, it takes in water. It protects us from all sorts of things.’
The mayor said he believes that his city is naturally predestined to become an ambassador for trees. It is nestled in the heart of the woods, and its inhabitants enjoy a rural lifestyle. The population is also fully aware of the damage caused by extreme weather events following the floods.
A first for Canada
The International Observatory of Nature Rights (IONR) says that the town is the first in Canada to sign onto the Universal Declaration of the Rights of the Tree, an international initiative spearheaded by environmental groups.
The three core articles of the initiative are that life on Earth depends on the existence of trees, that humans must act in ‘fraternity and solidarity’ with them, and that trees are living beings and a common human good.
Karine Peloffy, a lawyer with Canada’s environmental legal charity Ecojustice, described the choice to recognise the rights of trees as a ‘very hopeful gesture’.
‘We know corporations have legal personhood and rights, and they are definitely not living,’ she said. ‘So if some nonliving things can have legal personhood, what’s stopping living beings from equally getting legal personhood?’
