Running through areas of incredible beauty lining the border between Wales and England, the River Wye is an environmental jewel for those living along its banks. Although the river continues to enrich the counties up and down its path, research has revealed the ways pollution is degrading its waters, endangering its health and the species for which it’s a habitat.
These findings, paired with recent legal letdowns for river activists, raise a question. Should the UK follow the lead of many other nations and grant ‘legal personhood’ to the River Wye and its natural wonders?
Legal personhood
The ‘legal personhood’ of rivers is a new and evolving concept and was first granted to the Whanganui River in New Zealand. Following campaigning by Māori groups, the river was given juridic personhood and was thus protected as a civil entity in 2017. This enshrined indigenous beliefs, which understand the river as a sacred part of their community interconnected with the entire natural world. The move also offered a plethora of environmental protections by codifying the right of the river to be free from destruction by pollution or something more sinister.
Since New Zealand’s landmark decision, the Komi Memem River in the Amazon has been granted personhood, as has the Magpie River in Canada, and every river in Bangladesh. In many post-colonial nations, indigenous groups are fighting for rights and protections for these natural landmarks. Who is to say that Wales cannot follow suit and protect its rivers in the same way?
The River Wye
The Wye flows from its source in mid-Wales through the Cambrian Mountains and Herefordshire before sustaining the Wye Valley and meeting the Severn estuary. This river, which has carved through the landscape since the last ice age, is now beginning to die as pollution disrupts the ecosystem at an alarming rate.
Researchers have identified run-off from intensive chicken farming along its banks as central to the issue of eutrophication and subsequent suffocation of river wildlife. The health of the river has recently been downgraded to ‘unfavourable-declining’, which highlights the urgent need to take measures to protect the quality of its water.
The campaign group River Action recently lost its lawsuit against the UK Government, in which it claimed that farmers who abuse fertiliser regulations and contribute to phosphate runoff into the river were not adequately punished. However, the case was still considered a success by the group as a conversation has begun to “implement a more preventative, advice-led approach to monitoring and enforcement” of agricultural pollution laws.
The case has also been followed by a £35mn investment to be used to build buffer strips to slow down pollution runoff, and to build incinerators to dispose of poultry waste. But although these changes have been somewhat welcomed by campaigners, others consider them “short sighted and one-sided actions”.
Nonetheless, if River Action had succeeded in its case, tougher regulations could have been enforced against those who prioritise expanding their intensive farming over the health of the surrounding environment.
Legal guardians
The agricultural giant Cargill’s subsidiary Avara Foods is accused of such activity in another River Action lawsuit. This follows a lawsuit against Cargill in Illinois, USA – it was found guilty of regulatory breaches and resulting river pollution. Although such cases can be complex, they broadly demonstrate that existing legal protections of rivers are not sufficiently thorough.
If the River Wye continues to be polluted at the current rate the situation will only deteriorate. This emphasises the need for increased protections such as ‘legal personhood’ to protect its waters and denizens.
A process which opens the door to understanding the Wye as an entity legally protected from certain infractions, such as intensive pollution, can hopefully aid in future lawsuits involving the river’s degradation. This outcome is further illustrated by Ecuador’s Los Cedros Biological Reserve – its constitutional rights protected it from destructive mining practices.
A key part of this process involves appointing legal guardians to environmental entities who can represent them in the legal process. Interestingly, the River Wye was recently given a ‘River Champion’, Anthea McIntyre, who is leading the strategy to restore the river. But legal protections for the Wye could extend so much further, possibly leading to McIntyre or another guardian representing its rights in court.
Legal protections for the River Wye like those created for the Whanganui and Los Cedros would be a landmark in protecting natural and national treasures. Integrating what was originally developed by indigenous communities into broader environmental activism can only benefit everyone involved aside from, of course, those who seek to put short-term profits over long-term protection.
