GARN works with decentralized regional and thematic hubs to coordinate and support the activities of members within a particular issue, area or region.
GARN is a dynamic and diverse global network of organizations, communities and individuals who work together towards advancing the Rights of Nature around the globe and transforming how humans relate to Mother Earth.
In order to work effectively throughout the world, GARN works with decentralized hubs to enable its members to be more effective by connecting and collaborating with others who share this worldview.
These hubs are established and run by GARN members who work in a particular geographical area or who share particular characteristics or interests (e.g. youth/academics).
The purpose of the hubs is to increase focused support and networking opportunities for the organizations, communities and individuals working on Rights of Nature; build collaborations and create collective strategies for the recognition and implementation of the Rights of Nature in a region/theme/sector; provide support to local and regional efforts, respond to urgent needs and calls to action and build visibility for key Rights of Nature efforts.
Tosana is an aspiring researcher of community-based conservation, political ecology and environmental justice. She has been a Rights of Nature advocate and climate activist for many years and now branching out to more-than-human perspectives and transspecies engagement. Her experience with the Rights of Nature movement started with her involvement in a local grassroots initiative aimed at practically protecting the rights of a forest to own itself and never be deforested. Tosana believes that recognizing rights of the natural world is the next great rights-based movement, building on the foundations of previous rights-based movements, such as children’s rights, the abolition of slavery, women’s suffrage, and civil rights, and recent developments in animal rights. Seeing that Nature has the right to be here as much as we do and that it is the Earth that gives us the right to life opens the possibility for a great civilizing change – a Copernican turn!
Quetza received their Master’s in Educational Leadership and Societal Change at Soka University of America in May 2023. Their thesis was titled “The Intersections of Climate Justice, Indigenous Liberation, and the Rights of Nature.” In their paper, they argue that Indigenous communities cannot be fully liberated until Mother Earth is fully liberated, as Indigenous people are a part of the land. And so, the Rights of Nature and Earth Law are robust climate justice solutions that would create a harmonious future of co-existence between all living beings on Earth.
Over the last couple of years, their identity has expanded through their own unlearning and relearning. Today, they identify as an Indigenous Two-Spirit person in this world. Quetza continues to learn more about these identities through Mexica danza, Mexcia temazcal ceremonies, and plant medicine ceremonies. Their learning continues to deepen while being in service in these sacred spaces.
Post graduate school, they have supported student groups and community-centered organizations as they continue to expand their research on Critical Global Ethnic Studies, Earth Law, and Value Creation Pedagogy. Quetza is excited about creating a project that intersects all their research.
As the Communications Facilitator of GARN’s Youth Hub, Quetza helps to raise awareness and develop and share educational materials on their social media channels and website.
Environmental Law expert graduated from the University of Rovira i Virgili, Spain. With more than 9 years of experience on law and as a Nature’s advocate in different spaces, Clara has gained knowledge in environmental law and policy, climate change, climate justice, sustainable fashion, intersectional sustainability, animal welfare, biodiversity conservation and Nature‘s rights. She has worked with prestigious organizations such as UNEP and the European Commission, delivered talks at high-level conferences, and engaged in educating youth on climate change and sustainability topics. She dreams of a world where we are able to coexist in harmony with Nature and our fellow animals, where Indigenous and Nature’s rights are recognized and respected, and where we have shifted from our current system and structures.
Academic Hub
The Academic Hub was founded to harness the extensive and multidisciplinary scholarship that has developed, particularly over the last decade, around GARN’s core commitment to the support, adoption and implementation of legal structures that respect and enforce Rights of Nature. Its goal is to extend to all disciplines, scholars, and research projects connected to the emergence of Ecological Jurisprudence and to create a space for critical inquiry, to facilitate and foster novel research on Rights of Nature, Earth Jurisprudence and related ideas.
Alessandro is an Associate Professor in the School of Law and Society at the University of the Sunshine Coast. He completed his LLB/LLM at the University of Turin in Italy, specializing in comparative law and legal anthropology with a field research project conducted in the Andes. His doctoral research, conducted at the University of Wollongong, focused on native title and legal pluralism in the Illawarra region.
Alessandro has been exploring the emerging discourse on Rights of Nature, Wild Law, and Earth Jurisprudence since its inception, with a particular focus on the intersection between this emerging discourse and different legal ontologies. In addition to having published extensively in the area, he has organized numerous events in Australia on Wild Law and Earth Jurisprudence, he is one of GARN’s founding members and of the Australian Earth Laws Alliance, and he has been a moderator at the UN General Assembly Dialogue on the Harmony with Nature.
Alessandro is currently an Executive Committee Member at GARN and an expert member of the UN Harmony with Nature program. Alessandro’s main areas of research are legal anthropology, legal theory, comparative law, ecological jurisprudence, constitutional law, sovereignty, and Indigenous rights.
Lauren Tarr lives by the shores of Lake Michigan and is a lifelong student of the Great Lakes. She’s an environmental social scientist with a background in teaching and public administration. She helped advise GARN’s Youth Hub from 2020-2023 and is now helping to co-facilitate the Academic Hub. She joins GARN from the United States, where she is an Environmental Policy PhD Candidate at the State University of New York (SUNY ESF). Her research focuses on Rights of Nature, Environmental Justice, and Community-based Conservation, with an overall interest in restoring human-nature relationships.
Caitlyn is from the Kansas City area in the Midwest of the U.S. She holds an M.S. in Environmental Science and Policy from Northern Arizona University and currently resides in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan where she is working towards her Ph.D. in Environmental and Energy Policy at Michigan Technological University. Her research looks at the intersection between local adaptation and the principles of Buen Vivir and the Rights of Nature in California, Usulután, El Salvador. She is actively involved in the Protect the Porkies movement and the Great Lakes Bill of Rights coalition. She is also a Dandelion Fellow with the Earth Law Center.
Legal Hub
The Legal Hub will provide legal guidance, support and training to GARN members. For example, the hub will take the lead on relevant GARN Amicus Curiae, finalize and publish Tribunal verdicts, respond to community or member inquiries on legal Rights of Nature questions and under-take the development of legal toolkits.
Juliana Klose is a sustainability expert with a long-standing track record in advancing ecological, social and economic transformation. With professional experience spanning federal institutions, environmental NGOs, certification bodies and purpose-driven businesses in Switzerland, Juliana has led multi-stakeholder projects that integrate biodiversity protection with sustainable economic innovation. Currently pursuing a BSc in Biodiversity with a minor in Law at the University of Zurich, Juliana brings an interdisciplinary perspective to the legal and ecological dimensions of environmental governance. She actively supports Rights of Nature initiatives and is committed to embedding biodiversity into legal and economic frameworks. Her work focuses on shaping future-fit business models and policy strategies that treat nature not merely as a resource, but as a rights-bearing partner essential to long-term prosperity and planetary well-being. Juliana is the National Representative of Eco Jurisprudence Monitor (EJM) in Switzerland and Facilitator at the Legal Hub of the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature (GARN).
She is a member of the Florida Bar.
Margaret serves as the Faculty Advisor at the Center for Earth Jurisprudence. She oversees CEJ’s programs and operations and has created educational forums throughout the United States and abroad. She also serves as the key Advisor to Barry University law students that work with CEJ as Earth Law & Policy Fellows.
She is on the Executive Committee of the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature (GARN), a network of organizations and individuals committed to the universal adoption and implementation of legal systems that recognize, respect and enforce “Rights of Nature” and to make the idea of Rights of Nature an idea whose time has come. She currently facilitates the GARN Legal Hub, a global connection of legal experts in the areas of Earth law and environmental justice. At Barry University, she serves on the Laudato Si’ Committee, the Adrian Dominican Institute Roundtable (ADIR), and as an Inclusive Teaching and Learning Consultant through the Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) office. Margaret formerly served on the Executive Committee and chaired the Legal Committee of the Florida Springs Council.
Margaret is a contributing author to the first ever Earth Law textbook, Earth Law: Emerging Ecocentric Law: A Guide for Practitioners and has written on the intersection of Earth law and environmental justice.
She earned her undergraduate degree in Political Science from Randolph-Macon Woman’s College, her Masters in Non-Profit & Human Resources Management from Penn State University, her Juris Doctor from Barry University School of Law, and her LL.M. from Western New England School of Law. While in law school, Margaret earned her Environmental Law Honors Certificate and worked two semesters in the Environmental and Earth Law Clinic. She now lectures on Earth Jurisprudence and Earth Law at Barry and around the world.
She is a member of the Florida Bar.
Lawyer of the Colegio Mayor de Nuestra Señora del Rosario University (Colombia), a specialist in Administrative Rights from the same university, and a Master’s degree in Rights of Nature and Intercultural Justice from Universidad Andina Simón Bolívar of Ecuador. More than 15 years of professional experience in the Colombian public sector; approved professional title of lawyer in Ecuador and member of the collective: “Abeja yo te Elijo”.
Stella is an activist and early-career researcher in the field of Political Philosophy. Currently based in Ecuador, she works with the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature (GARN) and Fundación Pachamama on research, advocacy, and strategy related to the Rights of Nature, Indigenous rights, and Amazon protection. Her work brings a philosophical lens to the Rights of Nature movement, grounding political theory in collective reflection and systemic transformation. As the Governance Facilitator of GARN’s European Hub, she works to support coordination and collective action across Europe, reimagining its relationship with nature, land, and one another.
Lawyer in environmental law and spokesperson for the mouvement Or de question opposed to the mining industry in French Guiana, Marine Calmet campaigns for the recognition of the rights of nature in France. She is the director of Wild Legal, an NGO whose mission is to serve as a school and an incubator for future trials defending the Rights of Nature. She is the author of the book Devenir Gardiens de la Nature, 2021 (Becoming Nature’s Guardians), book prize of the European Institute of Ecology, Decoloniser le droit, 2024 (Decolonizing the law), and Justice pour l’étoile de mer, vers la reconnaissance des droits de l’Océan, 2025 (Justice for the starfish, towards the recognition of the rights of the ocean).
Pietro Consolandi is an artist and researcher in the field of Political Theory based between Venice and the Isle of Wight. He is currently a PhD candidate at University of Southampton and collaborates withTBA21–Academy as Rights of Nature researcher. In 2018 he co-founded Barena Bianca in Venice, an art and ecology collective striving to build an emotional connection between Venice’s inhabitants and the Lagoon who hosts them. This has led him through the years to join the Rights of Nature movement, also as an active member of the Confluence of European Water Bodies network. Recently, he has been working closely with the IDRA (Iniziativa per i Diritti delle Reti d’Acqua) network in north-east Italy, producing the Declaration of the Rights of the Venice Lagoon.
Christiane Bosman is part of the management team of the Embassy of the North Sea, an interdisciplinary collective based in the Netherlands aimed to represent the North Sea as a political, legal person. After her studies in art history, heritage and communications she worked as an independent public art producer, curator and communicator, with a specific focus on human-non-human relations since 2019. She co-founded, together with TBA21-Academy and ILP Mar Menor the Confluence of European Water Bodies, a network of over 35 water bodies confluencing to give a voice to the rivers, seas, glaciers, lakes and lagoons of Europe.
Environmental lawyer, university professor and parliamentary advisor. Climate and Energy Coordinator, Project Manager and Legal Advisor of the Argentine Association of Environmental Lawyers, co-founder of the Global Parliamentary Front for the Rights of Nature. Member of the Ecosocial and Intercultural Pact of the South. Judge of the International Rights of Nature Tribunal.
Graphic designer and web developer (UCSE, Argentina) with more than ten years of experience. Specialized in UX/UI at (UBP, Córdoba). Member of the Argentinian Association of Environmental Lawyers since 2019, member of the Communication Team of the Ecosocial and Intercultural Pact of the South. Self-taught musician. His interdisciplinary training in communication and design, allows him to understand the developments as pieces in continuous progress and unlimited scope, where the basis is the strategy and vision that underpin each step. Throughout his career he has worked in advertising campaigns and political propaganda in different agencies in Córdoba, Argentina. He is a freelance consultant for social, cultural and political organizations.
Gathuru Mburu is a Kenyan environmental justice advocate and long-standing leader in the African environmental movement. As an African Hub Facilitator of the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature (GARN), he supports regional coordination, movement-building, and the advancement of Rights of Nature and community-led environmental governance across Africa.
Stefania Falcon brings over a decade of experience in wildlife and environmental protection, with a strong focus on advancing the Rights of Nature. As Program Coordinator at the Wild Law Institute, she serves as the Secretariat of the GARN African Hub, supporting its governance, communications, and strategic coordination.
Dr. Somabha Bandopadhay teaches at The West Bengal National University for Juridical Sciences (WBNUJS), Kolkata where she also completed her doctoral work. An awardee of the Indo-Canadian Shastri Mitacs Scholarship she pursued research on victimization of transgender persons at the School of Criminology, University of Montreal, Canada. She pursued BA.LLB (International Law Honors) from School of Law, KIIT University, Bhubaneswar and pursued LLM (Human Rights Law) National Law School of India University (NLSIU), Bangalore. She was awarded the Nani Palkhivala Memorial Gold Medal at NLSIU Bangalore and the Chancellor’s Gold Medal and Nanibala Devi Memorial Gold Medal at KIIT University. She has more than fifteen research publications to her credit including a few in Scopus indexed journals and numerous blog and magazine articles. She has presented extensively at international platforms like the European Society of International Law. Her papers titled “Steering Earth Justice with Principles of Environmental Ethics” and “The Indian Culture of Agricultural Commons” was selected to be presented at 6th International Eco Summit by Elseiver in Gold Coast, Australia in 2021. Her paper “Agricultural Commons: Where Does India Stand?” was selected for presentation at Annual New York State Political Science Conference, Manhattan College, New York in 2020. She regularly undertakes trainings of police officials, judicial officers and advocates in India on transgender sensitization. She has undertaken several research endeavours and has recently concluded a collaborative project with University of Leicester, UK on Ponzi schemes in Bengal. She also volunteers for the Global Alliance for Rights of Nature (GARN) and facilitates the Asia-Pacific Hub and Youth Hub. As the most recent moot court judging experience, Somabha judged the national and international (US and Nepal) rounds of the Phillip C Jessup Moot Court competition. Apart from her law career, she is a classical Manipuri dance artist and has been awarded two Government of India scholarships. She is presently pursuing research on Glyphosate and Rights of Nature in collaboration with Earth Thrive, United Kingdom, and another with WBNUJS, Kolkata on Transgender trauma and stigma. She is the Governance Facilitator of the GARN Youth Hub and a member of World Youths for Climate Justice. She also serves on the advisory boards of various organizations.
A licensed environmental planner, Candy Hidalgo is the Deputy Coordinator of the Philippine Misereor Partnership Inc. (PMPI), a social development network of more than 230 civil society organizations in the Philippines. At PMPI, she has helped oversee the implementation of diverse projects and activities of PMPI nationwide since 2013, with thematic concerns including climate change adaptation/ mitigation, disaster risk reduction and management, and the Rights of Nature.
She holds a BS Community Development degree and a Master of Arts in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of the Philippines, as well as a Certificate in Applied Humanitarian Logistics Management. Before joining PMPI, she worked as a project officer at PHILSSA and was a research associate at the Institute of Philippine Culture of Ateneo de Manila University.
Inspired by her work in PMPI, she continues to participate in activities and programs like the Deeptime Network’s Leadership and Personal Empowerment Program, REGEN-Nations program, and Development Entrepreneurship that help her reflect on her role and respond to the challenges of this ever-changing world.
Jina was struck by the idea and philosophy of the Rights of Nature while she was writing her master’s thesis on standing in environmental litigations. After reading the article “Should Trees Have Standing?”, she started to question the present anthropocentric system and became more hopeful of making a paradigm shift on Mother Earth where Nature is appreciated. In 2023, she worked as an intern in GARN to engage in the movement and to deepen her knowledge.
After she pursued an LLB from the Sookmyung Women’s University in South Korea, she worked as an assistant at the Supporter Service Team at Greenpeace where her interest in the environment and Nature grew more sincerely. She recently graduated with an LLM in Transnational Law at the University of Bremen in Germany.
Currently, she is interning at UNEP in the legal and policy unit at the Secretariats of the Basel, Rotterdam, and Stockholm Conventions which aim to protect human health and the environment from hazardous chemicals and waste. With a passion for raising awareness of the Rights of Nature, she has been working as a Communications facilitator in the Asia-Pacific Hub of GARN.
Caitlyn is from the Kansas City area in the Midwest of the U.S. She holds an M.S. in Environmental Science and Policy from Northern Arizona University and currently resides in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan where she is working towards her Ph.D. in Environmental and Energy Policy at Michigan Technological University. Her research looks at the intersection between local adaptation and the principles of Buen Vivir and the Rights of Nature in California, Usulután, El Salvador. She is actively involved in the Protect the Porkies movement and the Great Lakes Bill of Rights coalition. She is also a Dandelion Fellow with the Earth Law Center.
Lauren Tarr lives by the shores of Lake Michigan and is a lifelong student of the Great Lakes. She’s an environmental social scientist with a background in teaching and public administration. She helped advise GARN’s Youth Hub from 2020-2023 and is now helping to co-facilitate the Academic Hub. She joins GARN from the United States, where she is an Environmental Policy PhD Candidate at the State University of New York (SUNY ESF). Her research focuses on Rights of Nature, Environmental Justice, and Community-based Conservation, with an overall interest in restoring human-nature relationships.
