On May 10th, Another Development Foundation and Umeå Transformation Research Initiative organized an event with scholars from Umeå University analyzing and discussion about Ecocide Law as potential tool for Sustainable Transformations.

Participants in the panel were:

  • Peder Karlsson, Board Member of End Ecocide Sweden and Honorary Professor, Aarhus University
  • Ulf Vannebäck, Associate Professor, Department of Law
  • Heidi Burdett, Associate Professor, Department of Ecology, Environment and Geoscience
  • Erland Mårald, Professor, Department of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies
  • Jon Moen, Professor, Department of Ecology, Environment and Geoscience

Professor Jon Moen were the moderator of the conversation.

During this seminar, Ecocide and the process around ecocide law were introduced. The conversation also discussed opportunities and challenges of this process in relation to law and how it may be used as a leverage for a shifting value about nature.

The seminar started with an introduction to the subject by Peder Karlsson. His introduction is available below. The dialouge between the panelists and the participants in the seminar started after Peder Karlssons introduction.

This is the introduction by Peder Karlsson:

What is Ecocide Law to Global and Local communities?

First – what is ecocide law, and why is it important that this law be introduced at the highest possible international level? Humankind has developed enormously powerful tools to extract value from nature.
Today, this power has become a threat to ecosystems, and therefore: to ourselves. To protect people, we must protect nature. To ensure the continued existence of human life on Earth, we must restrict human activities.

Ecocide law is to make large-scale environmental destruction an international crime. Large-scale – ecocide law is designed to put an end to the very worst forms of environmental destruction. It must be an international law, otherwise environmentally destructive activities can simply be moved elsewhere. And it must be a criminal offence.

This law must be enforceable under criminal law. Destroying ecosystems is far too profitable. To truly protect nature from dangerous extraction, it isn’t enough to set up an agreement or a convention where breach of the agreement or the convention doesn’t have any criminal consequences. Leaving the protection of nature to the arbitrary judgment of market forces simply doesn’t make any sense anymore.
New business models that nourish life
Making ecocide an international crime gives people the opportunity to bring about a shift towards
new forms of activity. A transformation into new forms of creative development is one of the most
important functions of ecocide law.

New Business Models that Nourish Life on Earth – and Enrich Our Lives.

A law that restores our hope for the future. When we ask new members of End Ecocide Sweden why they want to join our organisation, then many of them respond like this: ”Ecocide Law gives me new hope for the future.” And when we ask: “Why is that?”, then many of them reply: “Because ecocide law will make a real difference.”

Definition of Ecocide

There is a long history behind the development of Ecocide Law. A decisive shift in the momentum behind the proposal to introduce Ecocide Law happened in June 2021, when an independent panel of twelve leading experts in international law – these twelve – put forward a proposal for a definition of the term ‘ecocide’. It reads as follows.

“Ecocide” means unlawful or wanton acts committed with knowledge that there is a substantial likelihood of severe and either widespread or long-term damage to the environment being caused bythose acts.“

This definition is both simple and powerful, and can be understood by lawyers and courts, as well
as by people without legal experience. Most importantly: this wording makes it possible to hold individuals to account for their decisions. And to establish a practice of thinking things through first, before you engage in dangerous activities. Projects that could lead to large-scale environmental destruction almost always have a very long preparation time. Ecocide Law forces decision-makers to get used to thinking, ‘Wait, we can’t do this – we could end up in prison!’ And so they are invited to try something new instead.

We don’t want crimes to be committed and people to be punished for their crimes only after the
ecosystems have already been destroyed; rather, we want to prevent such crimes from being committed in the first place, so that nature is protected. In other words, what we want is preventive law rather than reactive environmental legislation.

Where Exactly is this Definition Set Out?

At the International Criminal Court in The Hague, the Netherlands. To be more precise, in its founding document, known as the Rome Statute.

Today, the Rome Statute defines four crimes against peace: genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and the crime of aggression.

How about ecocide?

The crime exists, but the law is still missing.

When two-thirds of the member states of the Rome Statute vote yes to the existing proposal to
include ecocide as a fifth crime against peace, then ecocide law will be recognised – at the highest
possible international level.

And how has all of this anything to do with local communities?

Before I continue, I want to mention one thing about End Ecocide Sweden. We build alliances with
people from different kinds of networks. Until now, we have mainly been focused on reaching out
to decision-makers on a national level. Now we are reaching out to local communities. Why? Because local communities is where people get to experience personally the real reality.

If we take a look at the City of Umeå, for example. They have something that they call ”Framtidsspaningen”. Or ”future outlook” in English.

When you Google this term, here is one of the results that comes up. Water. ”We safeguard water as a vital resource.” Yes! What’s not to like? ”At least, the Sävarån catchment area must have good conditions for a rich flora and fauna.”

Brilliant.

”Our surface and groundwater bodies must be in good status.”

That’s rather brilliant too, isn’t it?

And I want to ask: Do you agree with me that water systems are not separated? We who live in Umeå do care about the whole of the Ume River, don’t we?

It does matter to us what goes on upstream.

Let’s imagine, hypothetically, that someone were to discharge toxic waste near Tärnaby. That is, of course, a process that we could not address through local Umeå council guidelines. For us to be able to do anything about such a thing, we would need regional and national policy on clean water. And such policy would have to be preventative, and the only legislation which is preventative is criminal law. We don’t want anyone to poison the Ume River and then get prosecuted. We want the Ume River to stay clean in the first place. And when we look eastwards, would you agree with me on this? – Water systems are a crucial part of the ecosystems of the Earth. If we, hypothetically, assume that someone were to act in such a way that the marine biology of the Baltic Sea were destroyed or on the verge of destruction, in that case, regional and national policy would not be enough. International law would be required. Ecocide Law.

It may feel as though this law is a long way off, but it is closer to us than one might think.

Thank you.

Peder Karlsson, End Ecocide Sweden and Choirs for Ecocide Law