A legal structure and governance model that encourages practices of ecological regeneration by enabling humans and non-humans to work together. The Zöop framework is moderated by the Zöonomic Foundation, an organisation whose board consists of members representing non-human life from each Zöop organisation
Context
Methods and structures that give the more-than-human a voice in decisions that impact local and global ecologies are becoming more common and taking a diverse number of forms across the world. For example, in 2017 the Whanganui River in New Zealand was the first to be legally recognised as a living being. Recentering practices, models, and frameworks around more-than-human life is now recognised as a way to reduce and eliminate the ecological destruction that ensues alongside human activities. The normative western practices of land ownership and resource management that treat nature as property under the law stand in contrast to these more cooperative governance practices that emphasise stewardship, and the responsibility that humans have in relation to the more-than-human.
Practice
Zöop is a cooperative governance model developed by ecologists, philosophers, artists, entepreneurs, and lawyers at Het Nieuwu Instituut in Rotterdam. The legal structure is inspired by the concept of rights-of-nature, which assumes the inherent rights of more-than-human species and ecosystems. It works with pragmatic sustainable principles inspired by doughnut economics. A Zöop is an organisation that wants “to contribute to ecological regeneration by making the interests of non-human life part of their organisational decision making.”
The zöops operate on a set of shared values:
“Equality: Human and more-than-human life learn to cooperate on the basis of equality.
“Collective work, mutual support: zoöps are not on their own. They actively seek collaborations to work out answers to the questions involved in developing a regenerative economy, with other zoöps and other organisational bodies.
“Generosity and gratitude are guiding principles. If more can be done or more can be given, then aim to do so.
“Trust: zoöps work on relations of trust that are based on their collective effort, shared values and visions.
“Multiple perspectives and ongoing learning: Answers are only answers if they include multiple perspectives. Zoöps are committed to keep learning how to include new perspectives and new kinds of knowledge in their zoönomic work.”
The Zöop model consists of: Organisations, known as zöops; the Zöonomic Foundation that represents non-human life in the areas where the zöops operate; and the Zöonomic Institute, a base organisation that supports the zöops and the foundation with knowledge, expertise, certification, and licences. In order to become a zöop, an organisation first dedicates a space for a board observer seat from the Zöonomic Foundation. The next step is to undertake an assessment of the ecological surroundings of the organisation, including financial, social and legal elements. The zöop then sets and commits to goals for ecological every year, which is a zöonomic cycle. Het Nieuwe Instituut is the first Zöop organisation, and there are number of ‘proto-zöops’ in the Netherlands, Italy, Germany, and Slovenia that are using parts of the framework or working towards applying the full framework in the future.
The Zöop model provides an accessible entry point for organisations to include the more-than-human in decision-making processes. Through the inclusion of the more-than-human into an organisational model and legal framework, the Zöop framework is a potentially important contributor to developing the concept of rights-of-nature methodologically. That the zöop model recognises the effects of economic and spatial decision making on ecological regeneration makes it a timely addition to climate-aware legal frameworks.