Terrasse-Vaudreuil becomes first Canadian town to recognize trees’ rights

Terrasse-Vaudreuil’s town council unanimously adopted a resolution recognizing trees as living beings with rights to life, natural growth, integrity and regeneration.

The June 9 resolution, titled Municipal Commitment to the Protection of the Canopy and the Recognition of the Fundamental Rights of Trees, calls for the town to review existing rules and bylaws so trees are protected or replaced when they must be cut down. It also commits the municipality to increase canopy cover, including by offering trees for residents to plant.

The declaration says trees are living beings and a common human good, that life on Earth depends on their existence, and that humans must act toward trees in a spirit of fraternity and solidarity. Terrace-Vaudreuil, which has about 2,000 residents, is the first municipality in Quebec and Canada to sign on to the Universal Declaration of the Rights of the Tree, according to the International Observatory of Nature Rights. The declaration’s organizers call it the first municipality in the world to sign it.

The initiative grew out of public discussion after a screening of André Desrochers’s film Des arbres et des arts, which prompted residents to debate the legal status of trees and whether they should be recognized as living beings rather than objects. The Terrace-Vaudreuil Environment Committee brought the request to council, and councillors voted unanimously to adopt it.

The Universal Declaration of the Rights of Trees was launched in Paris on Nov. 18, 2018, and its organizers say it has collected more than 87,000 signatures worldwide.