The 'harmony with nature' paradigm in Brazil
| Autor | Alessandro Pelizzon/Mariana Ribeiro Santiago |
| Páginas | 537-551 |
537
The ‘harmony wiTh naTure’ paradi gm in Brazil
capÍTulo XXXiii
The ‘harmonY WiTh naTure’ paradigm in braZil
Alessandro Pelizzon1
(University of Wollongong - Australia)
Mariana Ribeiro Santiago2
(Justus-Liebig-Universität Giessen - Germany)
inTroducTion
In 2015, the Municipality of São Paulo proposed the Amendment to the
Organic Law of the Municipality no 04-00005/2015, in which it suggested to
include a new provision (180A), ‘considering that the members of nature have
intrinsic rights to life and maintenance of their ecosystem processes, in inter-
dependence with the dignied life of the citizens, with the aim of achieving
sustainability in the city’ (SÃO PAULO, 2015). Shortly thereafter, in 2017, the
Municipality of Bonito, in the State of Pernambuco, amended its Organic Law
to recognize the rights of Nature (PERNAMBUCO, 2020), and was soon fol-
lowed, in 2018, by the Municipality of Paudalho, also in the State of Pernam-
buco, which, equally recognized Nature as a subject of rights (PERNAMBU-
CO, 2018).
From this brief overview, it seems that rights of Nature arguments are in-
creasingly becoming commonplace in Brazil. In a parallel, but ultimately si-
milar development, the Superior Court of Justice decided, in March 21, 2019,
that non-human animals can be conceived of as subjects of law, making them
the object of custody, not possession, by their human companions (Appeal
no 1.797.175-SP). Ingo Wolfgang Sarlet and Tiago Fensterseifer suggest that,
through an ecological reading of the principle of the dignity of the human
person (prompted by what is, in fact, an emergency in the face of an ecological
crisis), this judgment challenges and ultimately dismantle a fundamentally
Kantian anthropocentric paradigm (SARLET; FENSTERSEIFER, 2017, p. 62).
1 Email: alessandro.pelizzon@scu.edu.au.
2 Email: mari.santiago@terra.com.br.
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