In June, Terrasse-Vaudreuil, a town in Quebec, Canada, became the first municipality in the world to sign on to the Universal Declaration of the Rights of the Tree, which was drafted in 2018 and revised in 2019.
The Declaration proclaims three fundamental principles:
- Article 1: The Tree, a sentient living being and a source of Life, is a common good of humanity.
- Article 2: Life on the planet depends on the existence of the Tree.
- Article 3: Humankind, endowed with reason and conscience, must act with the Tree in a spirit of fraternity and solidarity.
Town Mayor Michel Bourdeau attributed Quebec filmmaker André Desrochers with inspiring the communities to act. He said Desrochers’ film, Des arbes et des arts (The Art of Trees) convinced local residents that trees are living entities that breathe and communicate with each other through their root systems.
“A tree is like a human being,” Bourdeau said. “It breathes, it lives, it takes in water. It protects us from all sorts of things.”
Photo: Morning sunbeams filter through deciduous trees of a northern forest.
