Lagoonscapes

The Venice Journal of Environmental Humanities

Articulating Rights of Nature and Degrowth: Proposals Around Mar Menor

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Abstract

This article calls for deepening the articulation between Rights of Nature (RoN) and degrowth. First, a historical overview identifies ecofeminism, Buen Vivir, and Green Legal Theory as areas of already existing connection. Despite tensions, we propose four promising intersections: multispecies conviviality; commoning; temporalisation of limits; and more-than-human care. Finally, we explore this articulation thinking with our fieldwork around Mar Menor, Europe's first ecosystem with subjective rights. Specifically, RoN could enable to situate degrowth within ecosystems, while degrowth may inspire institutional design to materialise RoN.


open access | peer reviewed

Presentato: 10 Marzo 2026 | Accettato: 24 Maggio 2026 | Pubblicato 06 Agosto 2026 | Lingua: en

Keywords Rights of Nature • Buen Vivir • Mar Menor • Legal personhood • Multispecies • Conviviality • Limits • Degrowth • Temporalities • Social-ecological transformation • Commons • Ecofeminism • Institutional design, Green Legal Theory • Care

Copyright © 2026 Julian Purrmann, Thomas Fabre. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

Permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/LGSP/2785-2709/2026/01/009