Stories for a Living Planet

Wildlife as Property Owners: A New Conception of Animal Rights
by Karen Bradshaw

Granting wildlife the legal right to own property, specifically land, as a novel solution to the biodiversity crisis. The book argues that current human-centric property laws are a primary driver of habitat destruction, and by folding animals into the existing property law system, they can be given a legal framework to protect their own habitats through human-managed trusts, potentially preventing mass extinction. Bradshaw, a law and sustainability scholar, suggests this approach, which incorporates indigenous legal concepts, could transform the human-nature relationship from adversarial to one of coexistence.

This meeting will be broken into three separate meetings.
First one will cover:

• Part I: The Problem of Anthropocentric Property
• Chapter 1: The Collision of Humankind and Nature: Establishes the historical context of property law and outlines how anthropocentric (human-centered) property rights drive global biodiversity loss.
• Chapter 2: The Logic of Exclusion: Examines how Western property law historically shut nonhuman life out of the legal framework.
• Part II: The Potential of Animal Property
• Chapter 3: Animal Property in the Wild: Discusses biological observations of territoriality, demonstrating how animals naturally engage in behaviors that mirror human property ownership.
• Chapter 4: Expanding the Boundaries of Property: Proposes using existing legal constructs, such as trusts, to allow humans to hold land for the benefit of animal beneficiaries.