Rechten van de Natuur in kikkerperspectief

Wie de laatste tijd het nieuws een beetje volgt over natuurbescherming, ziet allerlei nieuwe termen voorbijvliegen: zoöperaties, bossen die van zichzelf zijn en bergen en rivieren met een eigen stem. Het zijn allemaal vormen om rechten te erkennen van de natuur en haar een stem te geven. Hoe zit dit? En belangrijker nog: wie spreekt er eigenlijk namens de kikkers? Rights of Nature from a frog perspective This article discusses the concept of assigning rights to nature, from a ‘frog perspective’. Current international and national nature policies and laws seem to fail to protect species adequately. Despite nature conservation laws, some species of reptiles, amphibians and fish are still threatened by drastic landscape changes and habitat degradation. For this reason another form of nature protection was looked into aand this has been gaining momentum in recent years: Rights of Nature. This article describes the concept, how it can be applied in practice and whether it could provide better protection. Internationally, there are several examples of nature entities (rivers, forests, mountains, lakes) and also species (sea turtles, herring) that have been granted rights and more protection. Amphibians who live close to humans are an excellent species group to illustrate that nature is all around us, that we depend on the same surroundings, and that we need to properly protect our shared environment. The article discusses the possibilities for volunteers to use their rights to speak out against spatial plans that damage habitats on behalf of frogs, for example. It also discusses the possibility for RAVON to speak on behalf of reptiles, amphibians and fish species and to promote interests, including by opposing government plans that will have a negative impact or, on the contrary, by calling attention to important bottlenecks in a more proactive way