A Place for Trees: Toward Arboreal Rights
This talk was part of the Toward a New Way of Being with Plants conference, delivered on June 18, 2021.
Can trees have rights? Trees and plants are receiving renewed attention in both the sciences and humanities, pointing towards recognition of their intelligence, agency, and relationality. Trees have a dramatically different expression of livingness than humans, and the ethical stance in the Western philosophical tradition is founded on a hierarchy with plants at the base, allowing for unimpeded use. Humans must take plant lives to maintain our own. Because of this challenge, trees and plants may not have a right to life or bodily integrity. They may, however, be considered to have a right to place. Trees are inextricably linked to the humans who are in relationship with them, and place-based rights also considers indigenous and local peoples who care for and depend on forests. An arboreal ethic may not be based on total lack of harm but instead on taking trees with respect for their lives and their place.
See other talks from the conference at the Being with Plants 2021 YouTube channel. I was honored to serve as moderator for both Queen Quet, "De Earth da We: Gullah/Geechee Nation Plants and Healing Culturally," and Sarah Abbott & Alice McSherry, "Toward More-Than-Intellectual Modes of Knowing with Vegetal Beings".