Rights of Nature and the Rights of Wild Animals: Guiding Principles for Resolving Human–Wildlife Conflicts

Abstract Rights of Nature (RoN) is increasingly used to challenge conventional legal frameworks, restructure governance over ecosystems and living beings, and rethink human–nature relations; however, its role in addressing human–wildlife conflict remains undertheorized and insufficiently defined. Using the case of the Andean (spectacled) bear ( Tremarctos ornatus ) in Ecuador’s Andean Bear Corridor, and the emerging conflict between individual bears and local farmers, this article presents an innovative RoN framework for conflict governance. The research employs a socio-legal approach – doctrinal analysis, qualitative interdisciplinary fieldwork (2022–2025) across five local communities in the Ecuadorian Andes and informal expert interviews – to compile a set of rights at multiple scales (ecosystem, species, individual animal) and identifies relevant principles of human–wildlife conflicts based on jurisprudence. Practical tests for consideration by courts and regulators are proposed: (i) an interspecies capabilities assessment outlining parameters for individual animal well-being and flourishing; (ii) a precautionary and eco-proportionality framework to balance the interests of humans, animals, and ecosystems; and (iii) adherence to principles that prioritize nature in decision-making (including for individual wild animals). Applied to the Andean bear case study, the proposed RoN framework could shift practice from conflict and killing to coexistence. The article argues that the RoN framework, including rights for wild animals, is more than solely a legal instrument, but a catalyst for reshaping human–nature relationships. The RoN framework presented provides a model to implement and operationalize RoN approaches in the wider Andean Bear Corridor and transnationally for other species in other countries accounting for individual animal rights.