Campaign seeks legal rights for the Loisach River

An alliance campaigning for the Loisach River wants it to be recognised as a legal person, BR reported. The proposal would give the river legal representatives and guardians to defend its interests.

The Loisach and the upper Loisach Valley are under pressure from dry tributaries, water extraction for Munich and power plants. The river flows 113 kilometres from its source in the Ehrwald Basin to Wolfratshausen, where it joins the Isar.

It supplies water to tributary streams, moors and the Murnauer Moos, forming a network of waterways that campaigners say is increasingly threatened.

Andreas Keller of the Bund Naturschutz environmental organisation said the river’s groundwater flow declines when water is taken from it. Tributaries can then dry up, he said, and excessive extraction harms the moors.

About 500 litres of water per second are pumped for Munich, representing around 20 per cent of the city’s needs. A trial extraction at the maximum permitted volume caused all the pools in the area to dry up within two days. The alliance said the Loisach ecosystem would not survive such conditions.

The campaign was discussed during a week-long conference held at locations along the river. Lawyers, artists and international guests met at Benediktbeuern Abbey, Kreut-Alm, Schlehdorf Abbey, mountain pastures and riverside paths.

Jade Mills, a Māori representative from New Zealand’s Whanganui River, attended the conference with Keria Ponga, a Māori tribal leader. The Whanganui has been recognised as a legal person since 2017. Māori groups spent 150 years negotiating with the New Zealand government to secure that status.

Claus Biegert, an author and filmmaker from Uffing who speaks for the Loisach alliance, said the campaign aimed to establish that nature is not an object but a subject with which people should deal on an equal footing.

The Spanish Mar Menor lagoon is another model for the campaign. After a major fish die-off, it was granted its own rights following a citizens’ initiative in 2022. Biegert said it became the first body of water in Europe to receive legal-person status, meaning people can theoretically represent it in court.

Artist Stefanie Zoche said art could help people engage with the issue on an emotional level. The rights of nature would represent a fundamental change in how people relate to the natural world, organisers said.

There are now around 500 initiatives worldwide seeking rights for nature, most of them in the Americas. The Loisach campaign is still at an early stage, but its supporters say the river now has something a dry river rarely has: a voice.