Earth Law Center Opens London Office, Expands International Work on Legal Innovations for the Planet

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Grant Wilson, Earth Law Center - gwilson@earthlaw.org, +1-510-566-1063

London, United Kingdom – March 11, 2026: Earth Law Center (ELC), an international nonprofit dedicated to giving Nature a voice in the legal system, has opened a London office in tandem with the incorporation of a UK entity, marking a major milestone in the organization’s growth. The office will serve as a hub for ELC’s growing work across the United Kingdom and Europe, as well as offering closer proximity to initiatives in Africa and Asia. ELC has more than 20 staff supporting legal innovation in over 30 countries.

ELC’s team provides guidance to governments, Indigenous leaders, grassroots advocates, and businesses transitioning to Earth-centered governance. The organization has deep expertise in legal frameworks recognizing rivers, forests, animals, and ecosystems as living entities deserving of legal rights, guardianship, and representation in decision-making.

The London office is based in Soho at Kanaloa House, a philanthropic workspace dedicated to planetary health—in particular, ocean health—through unexpected collaborations and accelerated action. ELC will support European initiatives and ocean-focused campaigns to protect coral reefs, cetaceans, and deep-sea ecosystems.

Earth Law Center staff, Board members, and allies at the London office launch

ELC Executive Director Grant Wilson

Quotes from Leadership

“I am incredibly proud that Earth Law Center has opened a London office to represent our growing work in the United Kingdom and Europe, while also serving as a gateway to Africa and Asia, regions where demand for our expertise is rapidly increasing,” said Grant Wilson, Executive Director of Earth Law Center. “Joining Kanaloa House also allows us to collaborate with leading ocean innovators and changemakers, strengthening our ability to secure bold legal protections for marine ecosystems.”

“We are thrilled to welcome Earth Law Center to Kanaloa House,” said Inga Thordar, Chief Catalyst Officer at Kanaloa. “ELC’s pioneering work to advance the Rights of Nature and give the living world a voice in our legal systems is deeply aligned with our mission to protect the ocean and the ecosystems it sustains. We look forward to future collaborations from our shared base dedicated to turning ideas into action for the planet.”

“Europe is experiencing a renaissance in ecocentric legal movements—from the Rights of Nature to legal guardianship of ecosystems to criminalizing ecocide—and we are privileged to help support and expand this community,” said ELC trustee Missy Lahren.

“Our new office signals the continued global expansion of Earth Law Center’s work and positions us to bring legal expertise and a global perspective to law campaigns in the UK and Europe,” said ELC trustee Elina Teboul.

Expanding Legal Innovation Across Europe

ELC’s European initiatives include:

• Nature Governance Initiative: Following the co-creation of the world’s first corporate board seat for Nature at the UK-based company Faith in Nature, ELC supports the development of Nature proxies to represent Nature’s voice and interests in corporate decision-making. ELC also empowers businesses to “Onboard Nature” in organizational governance and culture.

• Una River (Bosnia & Herzegovina; Croatia): The Una River campaign supports processes that could eventually lead to the legal recognition of the river’s rights, with legal guardianship to give it a formal voice in law, and protect it from dam expansion, nuclear waste storage, and illegal development. This initiative is supported by Patagonia and is being carried out with partners including ACT Foundation and Earth Thrive’s Balkan Centre for the Rights of Nature.  

• Lough Neagh (Northern Ireland): Following a scoping report with Queen’s University Belfast, ELC supports community-led efforts exploring how the UK’s largest lake could transition from private ownership to a rights-bearing entity under ecocentric law. 

• Oslo Fjord (Norway): ELC helps local advocates strengthen protections for fragile marine ecosystems through ecocentric law, including the Rights of Nature.

• Drin River (Albania): Legal support under the Bern Convention challenges the proposed Skavica mega-dam, which threatens the last free-flowing stretch of the Black Drin River and thousands of local residents.

• Rights of Nature, Transitional Justice, and Peacebuilding (Europe & Global): At the London office launch, ELC announced a partnership with Queen’s University Belfast School of Law to explore how Rights of Nature can support environmental peacebuilding in Europe and beyond.

The Una, a 212-km border river between Bosnia & Herzegovina and Croatia that drains into the Black Sea.

Advancing Ocean Protection Worldwide

From its new London hub, ELC will also expand its global Ocean Program. Initiatives include:

• West Papua, Indonesia: Partnering with OurConservaSea and Ecoforensic, ELC uses ecocentric legal tools to codify sasi laut—a form of traditional customary governance—combined with frameworks for scientific monitoring. This project seeks to empower Papuan women and youth to act as legal guardians and protectors of coral reefs. 

• Mesoamerican Reef: ELC is developing a bioregional framework to extend Rights of Nature protections across Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, and Honduras for the Mesoamerican Reef, alongside partner Health Reefs Healthy People.

• Indigenous Youth Ocean Congress: This project focuses on mentoring Indigenous youth leaders in Ocean governance, culminating in an Indigenous Youth Ocean Congress (New York City, September 2026) and campaigns advancing the rights of the Ocean.

• Deep-sea species: ELC advocates for legal protections to give a formal voice to deep-sea species and ecosystems within the International Seabed Authority.

Legal Leadership for the Biosphere

Since 2008, ELC has led major ecocentric legal developments in countries around the world. The organization advised Panama on its 2022 Rights of Nature law, helped municipalities in Peru draft the world’s first legislation recognizing the rights of stingless bees, and supported Indigenous Kukama women in securing legal rights for the Marañón River in a 2024 court victory, recognized by the 2025 Goldman Environmental Prize for community leader Mari Luz Canaquiri Murayari.

ELC also supports emerging protections for rivers and ocean ecosystems in Nigeria, Indonesia, Oceania, and beyond. In North America, ELC has advanced legal protections for Southern Resident Orcas; fought to protect rivers in Washington, Colorado, and other states; secured permanent protection for legacy forests in the Elwha River watershed; and, in 2025, launched a New York Program focused on implementation of the right to a healthy environment.

At the international level, ELC participates in forums including the United Nations, IUCN, and the International Seabed Authority, helping shape new legal frameworks for ecosystems and species. Through legal advocacy, research, and education—including a global Earth law course that has trained more than 800 advocates in 80+ countries—ELC equips a new generation of leaders with innovative legal tools to solve the environmental crisis. 

With its new London office, ELC now has the capacity to provide its ecocentric law expertise to an even broader array of governments, grassroots leaders, and businesses across the region.

Eight Pioneering Policies on Living in Harmony With Nature Win the World Future Policy Award 2025

Panama’s Law 287 is among the winners of this year’s awards. The eight winning policies set new global benchmarks by showing how legal systems can be transformed into future-just frameworks – and thereby contributing to the well-being of all living beings on Earth, as well as future generations.

Hamburg, 9th October 2025 – Eight pioneering laws and policy frameworks have been named winners of the 2025 World Future Policy Award (WFPA), the world’s leading prize for policy solutions. This year, the WFPA recognises exemplary policies that foster and enable a paradigm shift in policy making in the way we understand our role in Nature and respect it – the foundation of all life.

Panama’s Law 287 has been recognized as one of the world’s best policies for Living in Harmony with Nature and Future Generations and honored with the World Future Policy Award 2025. The law recognizes Nature as a living being, with rights to exist, regenerate, and be restored. It is the only framework from the Americas to receive this award this year.

The approval of this law had the technical and scientific backing of international organizations such as Earth Law Center and The Leatherback Project, which worked together with the Panamanian government to substantiate and promote its approval throughout the legislative process. Its provisions not only guarantee the protection and restoration of ecosystems but also establish a specific obligation to preserve the country's water cycles. This award positions Panama at the forefront of the global Rights of Nature movement, demonstrating that the legal recognition of these rights is a viable and transformative policy. The award validates the country's pioneering approach, and it encourages other nations to follow this path, strengthening a global legal movement that seeks to redefine our relationship with the natural world for future generations.

This year’s winners were chosen from 41 nominations from 21 countries, narrowed down to 13 finalists under the theme Living in Harmony with Nature and Future Generations. An independent jury of international experts then identified the eight most outstanding policies. These groundbreaking frameworks recognize the legal rights of Nature and ecosystems, embed principles such as Earth Trusteeship and Indigenous wisdom, and place intergenerational justice at the heart of decision-making. The laws make an outstanding contribution to the well-being of present and future generations of all living beings on Earth.

Six policies are winners in the main category, while one is honored with the “Vision Award” and one takes home the “Global Impact Award”. Global Impact Award is a new category introduced this year, highlighting a policy that has transformative influence on legal and policy thinking worldwide. It inspires a global intergenerational movement and contributes to a fundamental paradigm shift within decision making and governance processes. 

6 WORLD FUTURE POLICY AWARD WINNERS – These policies are outstanding candidates

• Environmental Ombudsoffice of Tyrol (Tiroler Umweltanwaltschaft), Austria/Tyrol (1991)

• Biodiversity Act, Bhutan (2022)

• Law 287, which recognises the Rights of Nature and the related obligations of the State with these rights, Panama (2022)

• National Environmental Management: Biodiversity Act (NEM:BA), South Africa (2004)

• Law 19/2022 Granting Mar Menor and its basin status of a legal person, Spain (2022)

• The National Environment Act, Uganda (2019) 

1 VISION AWARD WINNER – A policy with visionary objectives and promise

• International: BBNJ – Agreement under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biological Diversity of Areas beyond National Jurisdiction (2023) 

1 GLOBAL IMPACT AWARD – The Global Impact Award highlights the policy’s role as a pioneering model that inspires laws and movements around the world

• Te Awa Tupua (Whanganui River Claims Settlement) Act, Aotearoa New Zealand (2017)  

“Since its creation, the World Future Policy Award has shown that visionary policymaking can change the course of history,” said Neshan Gunasekera, CEO of the World Future Council. “This year’s winners prove that safeguarding Nature and the rights of future generations is not just an aspiration — it is possible, practical, and already happening. They inspire hope, courage and action at a time when humanity urgently needs all of it.”

“We cannot separate our conservation crises from our governance crises,” said Katy Gwiazdon, Executive Director of the Center for Environmental Ethics and Law and Chair of the Ethics Specialist Group, IUCN World Commission on Environmental Law. “The World Future Policy Award recognizes this critical link between decision-makers and the impacts of their decisions on the community of life. We need compassion, we need creativity, we need courage. These winning policies can help lead us forward. They are ethics in action for the future of life.” 

“This year's World Future Policy Award winners are a testament to the power of law to forge a sustainable and just future,” stated Dr Grethel Aguilar, Director General of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). “These pioneering policies, which draw from the wisdom of Indigenous and local knowledge systems, set a new standard for living in harmony with nature and future generations. We are proud to celebrate them at the IUCN World Conservation Congress, as we join forces to work together to shape a just world that values and conserves nature.”

Anda Filip, Director for Member Parliaments and External Relations at the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), added: “Now, more than ever, we need to be sharing and implementing good and effective policies that can turn the tide of the climate emergency and safeguard our precious Planet Earth, for our children and for future generations. Solutions are out there, and they should be seized with courage, solidarity and political will!

The winners will be celebrated on 11 October at a high-level awards ceremony in Abu Dhabi at the IUCN Congress.

Media Contacts

About Panama´s Law 287

Constanza Prieto Figelist, Director of the Latin America Legal Program, Earth Law Center 

M: cpfigelist@earthlaw.org (Spanish/English)

Callie Veelenturf, Executive Director, The Leatherback Project, 

M: callie@leatherbackproject.org (English)

About the World Future Policy Award 2025

Miriam Petersen

M: miriam.petersen@ext.worldfuturecouncil.org

T. +353 (0) 89-4826484

Samia Kassid

M: samia.kassid@worldfuturecouncil.org

https://www.worldfuturecouncil.org/p/living-in-harmony-with-nature-and-future-generations/

About the World Future Policy Award

The World Future Policy Award celebrates top policy solutions for us and generations to come. We raise global awareness for exemplary laws and policies, accelerating policy action toward a common future, where every living being lives in dignity on a healthy, sustainable planet.  The Award focuses on topics where progress is particularly urgent and receive nominations from across the globe.

 About the World Future Council

The World Future Council envisions a healthy planet with just and peaceful societies, both now and in the future. We are dedicated to identifying, developing, and promoting future-just solutions to the most pressing challenges humanity and Nature face today.  The Council is composed of fifty eminent global changemakers elected from a variety of disciplines and facilitated by a technical team.  

About Earth Law Center

Earth Law Center (ELC) is a non-profit organization based in the United States that promotes the application of the Rights of Nature at the local and international levels, creating alliances with local organizations for the recognition and enactment of laws that recognize the inherent rights of rivers, oceans, and terrestrial and coastal ecosystems. In this way, it aims to achieve a paradigm shift, fighting for the formal recognition of the Rights of Nature to exist, develop, and evolve. ELC seeks to guarantee ecosystems the same rights as individuals and companies, allowing them to defend their rights in national and international courts, not only for the benefit of people but also for the benefit of Nature itself.

About The Leatherback Project

The Leatherback Project is a nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting leatherback sea turtles and other threatened and endangered marine species through science, advocacy, storytelling, and community-driven action. By advancing research, sharing compelling narratives, and empowering local communities, they work to reduce fishing bycatch, establish and strengthen marine protected areas, and defend the intrinsic rights of Nature. They seek to restore balance, reduce anthropogenic pressures, and achieve a sustainable future for threatened ocean ecosystems and coastal habitats, enabling the recovery of endangered species such as the leatherback sea turtle.

Judge Temporarily Halts Logging of 300 Acres of Legacy Forests in the Elwha Watershed

F O R   I M M E D I A T E   R E L E A S E 

May 8, 2025 

Contact: Elizabeth Dunne (edunne@earthlaw.org)

Port Angeles, Washington: Clallam County Superior Court yesterday halted logging of 300 acres of legacy forests in and around the Elwha Watershed.

Earth Law Center (ELC) supported Legacy Forest Defense Coalition (LFDC) in bringing the emergency motion to stop the logging, which stems from two recent timber sales. The logging company, Murphy, had already started road building and destruction of this unique ecosystem.

The judge's order halts all logging activity for 14 days. The court will hold another hearing later in May to further consider whether the WA Department of Natural Resource (DNR) is violating its own policies by logging the last remaining structurally complex and biodiverse lowland temperate rainforests in the state. LFDC has won preliminary court injunctions in several other cases on these grounds. 

Forest in “Tree Well” timber sale. Photo Credit: Scott F. McGee @forest2sea

ELC has two separate but related lawsuits, with co-plaintiffs Center for Whale Research and Orca Network, that are still ongoing. Those cases argue that DNR has failed to account for how industrial logging practices impact stream flows in the watershed, in particular the famous Elwha River and its tributaries. 

The Elwha River is the site of one of the largest dam removal projects in US history – a project that succeeded in allowing salmon to repopulate the river for the first time in over a century. The endangered Southern Resident Orcas depend upon recovering salmon populations for their survival. 

Despite the millions of dollars spent on river restoration, the DNR had continued to log legacy forests in the watershed up until a pause instituted by the new State Public Lands Commissioner, Dave Upthegrove, upon taking office in January. The pause fulfills Commissioner Upthegrove's campaign promise to stop the destruction of legacy forests. DNR, however, has continued to defend in court the decision to put legacy forests on the chopping block in timber sales approved under the prior commissioner.