In late January, New Zealand granted environmental personhood to Taranaki Maunga, the second-highest mountain in the country’s North Island. This formally recognises its indigenous, Māori, status and grants the mountain and its surrounding peaks the same rights, responsibilities, and protections as an individual.

An eight-member governing body with four members from local Māori iwi (indigenous tribes) of the country, and others appointed by New Zealand’s Conservation Minister, will be the “face and voice” of the mountain, according to Associated Press.

Mount Taranaki is now known by its Māori name Taranaki Maunga, and is the third natural feature in New Zealand to receive legal personhood. In 2014, New Zealand became the first country in the world to grant legal personhood to a natural feature. It replaced the rainforest’s Te Urewera, in the North Island, with national park status with legal personhood. In 2017, the Whanganui River (renamed Te Awa Tupua), which is considered a sentient ancestor by the Māori iwi in New Zealand, gained legal personhood.

Environmental legal personhood (ELP) is a legal concept in which environmental entities such as forests, rivers, and mountains are granted the same status as a citizen. ELPs are different from the rights to nature movement, says Viktoria Kahui, senior lecturer at the University of Otago, New Zealand. She specialises in environmental and ecological economics.

The rights to nature movement is a “global movement that recognises nature (or parts of nature) as subjects with rights”, Kahui explains. “ELPs are a type of rights of nature, where natural entities are given legal personhood.” This is similar to how incorporated societies, charitable trusts and organisations can implement contracts, acquire property, and have legal standing in court.

The concept of granting natural features the same rights as citizens can be traced back to 1972, when law professor Christopher Stone published a paper, Should Trees Have Standing?—Toward Legal Rights for Natural Objects. In the paper, he proposes giving legal rights to forests, oceans, rivers and other “natural objects” in the environment.

Image credit: Te Awa Tupua, via Wikimedia Commons

More than three decades later, in 2008, Ecuador enshrined rights of nature in its constitution. This breakthrough opened the doors for ELPs to become a reality from a theory. Today, there are over 500 initiatives, at all levels of the law and in all stages of development relating to rights of nature globally.

The rapid destruction of biodiversity, the ongoing threat of extinction to plant and animal species worldwide, and the relentless prioritisation of capitalist expansion by wiping out natural ecosystems are accelerating. 

Granting environmental personhood has served as a way to acknowledge Indigenous peoples’ deep connection with nature. However, a pressing question remains: can it also help safeguard biodiversity? As Kahui puts it, “ELPs are not a cure-all for the global biodiversity crisis, but if thoughtfully crafted and implemented, they could drive meaningful change in conservation efforts.”

An important change that ELPs bring is that they give nature agency. “Natural ecosystems can emerge as separate entities with their own guardians, who speak on their behalf. Some of the literature has long advocated for granting nature stakeholder status, thereby forcing accountability on companies and the economy for their impact on the environment,” Kahui explains.

Moreover, permanent organisational structures can form around natural entities and their communities. Kahui notes that this could foster the development of environmental stewardship and the protection of natural capital for future generations.”

Over the years, some people have also criticised the acts of granting legal personhood. According to them, these are “incomplete responses to injustice experienced by Māori, including through failing to address the inequitable allocation of property rights to land and water”, as stated by Elizabeth Macpherson and Hayden Turoa in a 2025 study.

However, according to this study, ELPs such as Te Awa Tupua are also often cited as a replicable model by environmentalists, researchers, and Indigenous communities from other countries. This is because the model is based on an Indigenous worldview that emphasises the close relationship between people and water.

For example, as stated in the study, in the case of Te Awa Tupua, granting legal personhood required a significant fundamental change among public and private entities involved in resource management and decision-making that impact the river.

ELPs challenge the traditional view of nature as property to be owned and misused. They offer a powerful tool for protecting natural entities while recognising the deep connections Indigenous communities have with the land. However, for ELPs to be effective, the focus must shift from exploitation to fostering respectful, sustainable relationships with the natural world.