In 2012, an agreement to grant legal personhood to the Whanganui River was signed between the New Zealand government and the Whanganui River Māori Trust.
Update:
Had a look at the conditions along the Cleddau Estuary, where in February 1996 the Sea Empress ran aground, and picked up a copy of “Sea Empress. Animism Edition” at Caffe Vista in which I read this good news:
“In 2014 the New Zealand government gave up formal ownership of the Te Urewera national park and granted the land with the status of personhood, that is a legal entity with “all the rights, powers, duties and liabilities of a legal person”.
This is too interesting a development to ignore so here this news sits as we debate whether the World’s Ocean should be granted with the status of ‘personhood’. Let’s continue the debate.
