On September 23, during New York Climate Week 2025, the International Rights of Nature Tribunal gathered at the People’s Forum to spotlight cases where ecosystems and communities are under siege — and to uplift Nature’s voice in the fight against fossil fuels and false solutions.

A historic verdict: Mountain Valley Pipeline Case

The event began with the launch of the verdict on the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) and its Southgate Extension, following an Indigenous-led tribunal held in 2024 on Yesah Saponi territory in North Carolina.

Case presenter Dr. Crystal Cavalier-Keck powerfully described the destruction caused by the 300+ mile fracked gas pipeline: poisoned wells, devastated rivers, endangered species, landslides, and families forced to live within the blast zone. She reminded everyone: “The river is not a resource. The river is a relative. To harm her is to harm ourselves.”

Judges including Casey Camp-Horinek, Heather Milton-Lightening and Shannon Biggs shared the Tribunal’s ethical judgment: the MVP represents a violation of the Rights of Nature, Indigenous sovereignty, and human rights. Their verdict called for:

• Immediate cancellation of the MVP and Southgate Extension.
• Repeal of Section 324 of the U.S. Fiscal Responsibility Act, which exempted MVP from environmental safeguards.
• Recognition of rivers like the Haw and Dan as legal subjects with rights.
• A moratorium on new fossil fuel infrastructure in the U.S. Southeast.
• Full restoration of sacred lands and waters.

This Tribunal was the first to be fully Indigenous-led, grounding its authority in natural law, ancestral sovereignty, and spiritual practice.

Global struggles for Rights of Nature on the road to COP30

The second panel broadened the scope, connecting the U.S. pipeline struggle to global cases and the path to COP30 in Brazil.

Enrique Viale (Argentina) spoke of the Tribunal’s judgments on Vaca Muerta, one of the world’s largest fracking sites, and on destructive industrial monoculture plantations in Chile and Argentina, denouncing they devastate ecosystems.

Pablo Solón (Bolivia) revisited the Tribunal’s case on the Amazon as a subject of rights, warning that deforestation is pushing the forest past its tipping point. He called for new strategies of implementation: local territories free of deforestation, and international solidarity among tropical forests in the Amazon, Africa, and Indonesia.

Osprey Orielle Lake (U.S.) connected these cases to the urgent global moment: “We are in the fight of our lives. Rights of Nature is not only a legal tool, it is a vision for dismantling extractive economies.” She previewed the Tribunal’s upcoming 6th Session at COP30 in Belém, where it will launch a New Pledge for Mother Earth as an alternative to false market-based solutions.

Watch the event now in English, Spanish or Portuguese.

From Appalachia to the Amazon, from Patagonia to Belém, the Rights of Nature movement is growing fast, now present in over 40 countries. As was clear at the People’s Forum, these Tribunals are not symbolic; they are living acts of jurisdiction, amplifying Indigenous law, civil society power, and the voice of Earth herself.

At a time when governments and corporations push more pipelines and greenwashed schemes, the Rights of Nature Tribunal insists on another path: one rooted in justice, reciprocity, and care for future generations. Join us on the road to COP30 in Belém, Brazil, where a global call to recognize and defend the Rights of Nature will resound.