Photo Credit ( Freepik )
A Brazilian city that has granted rights to its well-known waves is taking an innovative approach to marine protection.
by Isabel Kaminski
The earliest known instance of a portion of the ocean being given legal personhood was when the Brazilian city of Linhares accorded its waves the status of living entities.
The waves near the mouth of the Doce River, which flows to Brazil’s Atlantic coast, now have an intrinsic right to life, regeneration, and repair thanks to a new ordinance that the coastal municipality passed early in August 2024. This implies that the water in the waves must be pure and that they should continue to form organically.
The new rule mandates that the city use funds and public policy to preserve the river’s natural form, the ecological cycles that give the waves their distinct characteristics, and the water’s well calibrated chemical composition. According to Vanessa Hasson, an environmental lawyer and executive director of Mapas, a Brazilian non-governmental organization that supports the nation’s emerging rights-of-nature movement, it also codifies respect for the waves’ cultural and economic significance in the community.
In addition, Linhares has designated guardians to keep an eye on the waves and represent them in public discourse. Hauley Silva Valim, a surfer and cofounder of the Doce River Alliance, and two other individuals with particular ties to the waves—a member of the city council’s environment committee and a representative of the local Indigenous community—were chosen by the city authorities.
Surfers seek out long, tubular waves, which make these highly sought-after waves renowned globally. However, the close-knit local surf community started noting changes about eight years ago, and eventually, two of the waves completely stopped breaking.
According to Valim, the collapse of the Mariana dam, which wreaked havoc on the area, killing 19 people, inundating communities, and garnering international attention, harmed the waves at the entrance of the Doce River. Waste from an iron ore mine close to Mariana, Brazil’s interior city, was contained by the dam. The Doce River experienced a surge of mud and mining waste after the dam broke, which accumulated over time and changed the course of the river, lessening its force and finally decreasing the waves at its mouth. These waves only came back in 2022 following a significant flood.
There were other victims besides the waves. Fish, vegetation, and microscopic aquatic life were all poisoned for several kilometers downstream from the river’s mouth by the toxic brown sludge that leaked from the dam.
“Every way of life has been impacted,” according to Flavia Freitas Ramos, who along with Valim cofounded Doce River Alliance, from fishing to tourism. A class action lawsuit is being filed by about 720,000 impacted residents against the mining owners.
Following the dam leak, Ramos, Hasson, and Valim met with Linhares people over a number of years to strengthen the movement for the rights of the cherished waves in collaboration with regional Indigenous representatives and other stakeholders.
According to Hasson, the primary objective of the new law is to alter public attitudes and practices toward issues like resource extraction and water quality. It expands upon a prior rights-of-nature ordinance that the northeastern Brazilian municipality of Bonito enacted in 2017. That ordinance prompted the creation of an agroecological plan that, according to Hasson, has enhanced the area’s soil quality, water management, and economics.
Governments all throughout the world are beginning to acknowledge that the natural world has an inherent right to exist and to be protected in court. The first country to incorporate a “rights-of-nature” statute into its national constitution was Ecuador in 2008.
Other nations have done the same within the last ten years. While New Zealand has protected a forest, river, and extinct volcano, Bangladesh has awarded the Turāg river legal personhood. The first European ecosystem to be granted legal rights is the Mar Menor salt lagoon on the Spanish coast.
Although the local government was spurred by the dam accident to preserve the waves at the entrance of the Doce River, Valim points out that Linhares’s new law was structured in a way that also provides protection against other risks. “We face constant pressure from port developments, oil spills, increased agricultural practices, and the significant amount of plastic and glass pollution that cities and industries dump into the river,” he claims.
Legislation protecting the environment can have legal force in addition to altering policy. A court decision based on Ecuador’s legislation in July 2024 found that pollution had infringed upon the rights of a river that passes through the nation’s capital. It is also theoretically possible to prosecute anyone responsible for violating the rights of the waves under the new Linhares statute.
Furthermore, Linhares’s legislation might also apply to damage that happens upstream, like the collapse of the Mariana dam, as it specifies that the protections apply to the entire system to which the waves belong, including linked bodies of water. That would be challenging to enforce, though.
This is the first step toward recognizing rights for the world’s seas because the legislation also protects the ocean due to the phrase protecting related waterbodies. To that end, a global campaign is being developed. “You are reaching the entire ocean when you recognize even a small portion of its space, like these waves,” asserts Hasson.
