PUBLIC POLICIES TO LIVE WELL IN HARMONY WITH NATURE

This work intend to share the activities we are doing in Brazil, around the proposal for the recognition of Rights of Nature.

It is particularly relevant to those of us who works with public policies for cities and with the projects involved to introduce the buen vivir way of life.

What we are proposing for the cities, intend to put the rights of nature as a vector of cities’ environmental law, but most of all, we aim at creating an appropriate ambiance to introduce public policies in which the community has guaranteed access to a life in harmony with nature.

The buen vivir as a basis for recognition of nature´s rights in Ecuador and Bolivia is a theory for the community policy sectors, where is required the respect to the principles of cooperative economy, integral health and a new form of engagement in harmony with nature.

Our work is based on transdisciplinarity. It requires that we think about economy, politics, psychology, medicine, art, spirituality and law in an integrated form to seek answers through experimentation methods of human consciousness expansion.

We have to consider the interdependence and connection of humans with the other members of Nature and with the Earth herself, for the purpose of strengthening well-being public policies already implemented and to support the enactment of other proposals, particularly those which relate to a full life, in the harmonious coexistence between human beings and between them and other members of Nature.

The life in the cities are representative of the human condition in relationship with other members of Nature, inside the greater perspective of the universe in this spherical, blue and common home, the Earth.

It is within the cities that the human life occur, and thus, there is where the paradigm could shift from a human-centered view to one that is centered in the Earth and everything she provides and shelters.

Thus, we hope to be offering theoretical support so that public policies aimed at well-being, living well, understand as a way of life in harmony with Nature, are been created and strengthened in all sectors of the communities.

With special attention, and assuming the legitimacy of the municipal entity in the enactment of laws that support this direction, we highlight the desire of creating public green leisure spaces, where activities are developed or simply to be in true contact with Nature.

The second point is the provision of treatment centers or the promotion of therapeutic activities for individuals through integral medicine, based on reestablishing the reconnection of human beings within themselves and their natural environment.

The third point  is the establishment of financial incentive to those who work with cooperative economy activities and, last but not least, and without intending to be restricted to only those proposals, the introduction of the theme of the Rights of Nature in public education and in the commemorative cities calendar, as United Nations did for the world, recognizing 22nd of April the international day of Mother Earth.

To support all these proposals and others that must be further elaborated, it is imperative that the Rights of Nature are adopted as a principle of law, as a vector of environmental protection cities’ legislation.

In this sense, the NGO MAPAS research group of which I am one of the directors, with the collaboration of Professor Cristiane Derani from the Federal University of Santa Catarina and Professor Germana Oliveira research’s group of  Federal University of Ceará, have elaborated a document named Nature´s Letter to compromise public environmental managers, legislators, and mayors on the cities of Brasil. The doccument was already signed by many authorities and is still open for others to adhere to.

Nature’s Letter is registered at the Harmony with Nature United Nations platform and can be reviewed there and at MAPAS´ website. We hope this document can offer the principles to enhance public policies and nurture new ones to promote the “buen vivir”, in harmony with nature with respecting the rights of nature in cities.

Thru this, the Brazilian cities of São Paulo in the southeast of Brasil; Bonito and Recife in the northeast; Florianópolis in the south and; Caseara in midwest, already initiated the processes to register the proposal of laws for the recognition of Nature´s Rights.

We strongly recommend that the movement begins at the city level, because that´s where people live.

Therefore the law and the execution of the law, recognizing nature´s rights, could be appropriate in a more efficient way by people and government, contributing with living in harmony with others who belong to Nature, who are Nature, like me and you and everythig else that coexist on Earth.

Thru this we believe that we can contribute to the expansion of the human-beings’ consciousness for a new world outside of this ecological crisis. A new world where everyone, every living and every living thing, can coexist in a collaborative way of life like the Earth system naturally is created for. A world where everyone could respect the other cohabitant of the Earth, living in a Harmony with Nature way!