Paper Short Abstract:

In 2022, the saltwater lagoon Mar Menor became the first ecosystem with legal personality in Europe as a result of a large-scale grassroots mobilization. What happens if a "natural" entity is legally represented as a subject? Can that be a tool for a multi-species democracy in the Anthropocene?

Paper Abstract:

In this Poster Presentation, I will present the results and preliminary interpretation from data gathered during my first extended research stay at the saltwater lagoon Mar Menor in the southern Spanish region of Murcia. After severe eutrophication events caused mainly by agricultural run-off, the unique but highly degraded ecosystem has been granted rights and legal personality as a result of a law fought for by a large grassroots campaign. Stuck in the constitutional court until end of 2024, the new bodies that are to represent the Mar Menor can finally be instituted and can start working. But how can the interests of an ecosystem be noticed, listened to, interpreted and effectively translated for the arenas of law and politics? How are these representations done in practice and how are they being contested? What does the regeneration of the lagoon mean in a Rights of Nature Framework and in the Anthropocene where conservation baselines become less and less obvious in the face of global environmental change? Does the relation to the lagoon and its governance change and what difference does that make for stakeholders and the everyday life of people? Can the relationality that constitutes the more-than-human world be articulated in law?