Work package – The theoretical level of ecological justice

Objectives

WP2 aims at defining a theoretical framework for the concept of EJ can be studied addressing:

1. Theory of justice;
2. Theory of law;
3. Theory of human rights

The main activities of the WP will consist in R&I and Transfer of Knowledge (through and after secondments) including reintegration

Description

• T2.1 Analysis of the theory of justice applied to ecological justice (M1-9; Task Leader UAM, with ISJPS, UPO, LMU, UNL, UFSC). The task will investigate how the contemporary ecological challenges modify the traditional question of justice, by:
  1. studying the biocentric theory of distributive EJ, namely the distributional conceptions of justice which are needed to outline the theory and the practice of EJ;
  2. providing normative groundwork for theories of EJ;
  3. identifying a common theoretical language on EJ (i.e. the study of the relationship between EJ, interspecies justice, and global environmental justice, the ecological-environmental justice nexus);
  4. developing an account of justice that includes non- human living beings as holders of entitlements (i.e. identifying the theoretical pillars to explain why all living beings can be holders of justice);
  5. deepening the relationship between EJ with issues such as autonomy, degrowth and distributions of goods and services. Preliminary results in relation to all the elements described above will be achieved through desk research activities reinforced by bilateral secondments among partners involved in the task. In M7 such results will be presented and discussed in a scientific workshop on the common theoretical language in relation to the EJ to be organized at UAM. Purpose of the workshop will consist in the followings:
     1. to validate T2.1 preliminary results and to gather them in an internal working document, to be circulated to all partners, which will set the general operational ground to steer the implementation of the remaining WP tasks;
     2. to agree on an overall structure to be used for preparing D2.1;
     3. to organize a training course for both ER and ESRs as well as for and external audiences (with a special attention to the key Speak4Nature stakeholders) addressing the issue of the common theoretical language in EJ and on the new idea of social justice deriving by EJ approaches.
  No. of PM per secondment per partner: UAM: 5, ISJPS: 3, UPO: 4, LMU: 3, UNL: 4, UFSC: 1. Tot. = 20
• T2.2 Analysis of the theory of law applied to ecological justice (M4-12; Task Leader ISJPS, with UPO, LMU, UNL, UFSC, UAM). T2.2 is focused on rethinking the existing approaches concerning ecological constraints and on reshaping a theory of law that incorporates ecological issues into its very foundational pillars. This task intends to improve and integrate the theoretical framework of EJ by prior outlying new concepts in the light of the renewal of natural law perspectives based on ecological concerns (i.e. theories of Wild Law, Earth Law, Earth Jurisprudence, Ecology of Law). T2.2 will also examine key definitions and concepts, including ecological conservation, biocultural rights, and Mother Earth rights to illustrate in what ways the theory of law should evolve so as to adequately respond to the interrelated concept of EJ. The research activities described above will be initially performed by means of desk research coupled with bidirectional research secondments distributed along the entire task duration involving the core partners. In M11 a workshop on inherent value of non-human nature will be organised at ISJPS, serving also the purposes to: 1) validate T2.2 results; b) rationalize the main preliminary outcomes of the task in an internal working document, to guide the implementation of the WP final task; c) to define the main contents and structure of D2.2; d) to organize a training course for both internal (ER and ESRs) and external audiences (with a special attention to the key Speak4Nature stakeholders) for familiarizing them on how the theory of law must be updated in consideration of the new natural law perspective deriving by the current ecological constraints.
  No. of PM per secondment per partner: UP1: 4, UPO: 5, LMU: 4, UNL: 4, UFSC: 2, UAM: 5. Tot. = 24
• T2.3 Analysis of the theory of human rights applied to EJ (M7-14; Task Leader UNL with ISJPS, UPO, LMU, UAM, UFSC). T2.3 is devoted to analyze to what extent human rights law considers the nature’s intrinsic value, mainly capitalising on the groundwork performed in T2.2. The work will analyze how the notion of EJ relates to that of environmental human rights. Issues such as rival subjects, graduations of first level rights, and the role of autonomy and agency in the notion of human rights will be addressed in depth. T2.3 activities will be accomplished through desk research and by means of bidirectional research secondments distributed along the entire task duration. A workshop on human rights and EJ will be organized (UFSC, M14): its outcomes will constitute a key pillar for validating the contents of D2.3, which will summarise the results of the present task. The workshop will also devote a session to define the methodology and the contents of the WP final deliverable, to be prepared within the task to follow. The workshop will be co-located with the First Network School.
  No. of PM per secondment per partner: UNL: 4, UP1: 4, UPO: 5, LMU: 4, UAM: 5, UFSC: 1. Tot. = 23
• T2.4 Drawing up of a final compendium of EJ theorical standards (M14-16; Task Leader UPO, with ISJPS, UAM, LMU, UNL, UFSC). The results of T2.1, 2.2 and 2.3 will be gathered in a compendium on theoretical standards of EJ (D2.4), which will provide a theoretical framework for understanding the legal registers that need to be considered to be able to conceptualise the notion of EJ and to practically implement the EJ principles, building on the results of all the previous WP2 tasks and deliverables. D2.4 will have a public nature and will be largely distributed to all key stakeholders as it will contribute in building up a discourse that is attractive to movements interested in both environmental and ecological justice, through close cooperation among all key partners.
  No. of PM per secondment per partner: UP1: 7, UPO: 5, UAM: 4, LMU: 3, UNL: 5, UFSC: 1. Tot. = 25

Work package – The empirical level of ecological justice

Objectives

WP3 aims at verifying how the notion of EJ operates in concrete practice and how diverse traditions of knowledge and cultural roots contribute to give voice to ecosystems. The main activities of the WP will consist in R&I and Transfer of Knowledge (through and after secondments) including reintegration.

Description

Description of Work and role of Beneficiaries (B) and Associated Partners (AB)

• T3.1 The state of the art regarding the political implementation of nature’s inherent value (M14-20; Task Leader ISJPS, with all, except ECO). T3.1 will investigate how political practices are dealing with the problem of representation and legitimation in giving voice to the voiceless, capitalising on the results of the previous WP and in particular on the outcomes of T2.3. Activities will be devoted to understand the current techniques of Politics of law towards the legitimacy of those humans who claim to speak on behalf of non-human nature. T3.1 foresees an in-depth comparative study of the political framework of nature’s representation in the countries involved in the project. This will be achieved through desk research followed by bidirectional research secondments distributed along the entire task duration with a stronger involvement of ER and ESR belonging to the units with complementary expertise in Law, Anthropology and Social sciences (ISJPS, UPO, LMU, UAM). The task will envisage the organisation of a scientific workshop on the political implementation of nature’s inherent in M18 at LMU, to validate the findings gathered within this task. The event will be co-located with the First Speak4Nature dissemination event and with a training devoted to provide an overview of the current political practices with respect to the EJ principles.
  No. of PM per secondment per partner: UPO: 3, UAM: 3, UP1: 2, LMU: 1, UNL: 2, FIMA: 1, UFSC: 1, FUHEM: 2,CNRS: 3. Tot.=18
• T3.2 The study of procedural techniques for giving voice to non-human nature (M16-24; Task Leader UPO, with all, with the exception of ECO and FUHEM). T3.2 will study the various procedural law instances that give voice to the intrinsic value of non-human nature. Special emphasis will be given to the comparative study of procedural legitimacy (legal standing techniques) used in cases of climate/environmental litigation and ecocides, as well as to the intervention of amicus curiae in those lawsuits. The final objective of T3.2 is to demonstrate how the representation of civil society of non-human nature is embraced by procedural techniques and, ultimately, to demonstrate how judges become the driving force of EJ. The task will be accomplished through desk research and bidirectional research secondments distributed along its duration. Its final findings will be discussed in a joint event at UAM on the procedural techniques in EJ case law in M23, in which the final outcomes of this task as well as those of T3.2 will be jointly discussed.
  No. of PM per secondment per partner: UPO: 3, UAM: 1, LMU: 2, CNRS: 1, UP1: 3, UNL: 3, FIMA: 1, UFSC: 1. Tot.=15
• T3.3 The role played by anthropology, biology, ecological sustainability, and economics expert reports in case law (M16-24; Task Leader UNL, with all Bs and APs). T3.3 objective is to show how in judicial cases the expert’s report is transformed into a formal instance of representation of the intrinsic value of non-human nature. In doing so, this task aims to measure the influence of social and environmental sciences on court decisions regarding EJ. T3.3 will be accomplished through bidirectional research secondments. The final findings of this task will be discussed in the above-mentioned joint event at UAM in M23, during which the outcomes of the previous task as well as the outcomes of the analysis of the procedural techniques in EJ case law will be discussed and validated, so as to allow the finalisation of D3.2 in M24.
  No. PM per secondment per partner: UNL: 3, UPO: 5, UAM: 4, LMU: 3, CNRS: 4, FIMA: 1, UFSC: 1, ECO: 3,FUHEM: 4. Tot=28
• T3.4 Analysis of a set of court rulings relevant concerning intergenerational and interspecies justice (M25-36; Task Leader UPO with all, with the only exception of FUHEM). This task will capitalise in the outcomes of the previous ones, summarised in D3.2, and will be devoted to compare the grade of implementation of the theoretical premises in the court rulings, so as to outline to what extent the judges with their decisions are contributing to the actual implementation of EJ. The activities at the core of this task will be focused on the analytical study of the decisions that reflect the premises of EJ to identify the reasoning upon which they are based, as well as their differences and common patterns. The task foresees the mapping of the most relevant court rulings worldwide cases in relation at least to all consortium members, USA, Latin America, India to be followed by a comparative phase for identifying common trends and patterns. In addition, relevance will be given to the study of international court rulings (European Court of Human Rights and Interamerican Court of Human Rights) on environmental case law issues from an ecocentric point of view. The task will be accomplished through bidirectional research secondments distributed along the entire task duration with a stronger involvement of ER and ESRs belonging to the units of the involved partners. This task will be concluded by a scientific workshop devoted to the application of EJ standards in court rulings (UNL; M36), whose outcomes will flow in D3.3. The workshop will be co-located with the Second Speak4Nature dissemination event and with the Second Network School in order to ensure cost-effectiveness of the mobilities within the Network.
  No. of PM per secondment per partner: UPO: 6, UAM: 6, LMU: 6, CNRS: 1, UNL: 3, FIMA: 1, UFSC: 1, ECO: 3. Tot.=27
• T3.5 The cultural and interdisciplinary roots of EJ (M28-38); Task Leader LMU, with all partners, with the only exception of ECO). This part of the research will seek to establish a framework regarding the reciprocal influences between social and environmental sciences in the field of EJ (anthropology, biology, ethology, evolutionary sciences, environmental ethics). This task will also seek to clarify the nature of the cultural factors (i.e. local history, customs) that are at the basis of EJ in the experiences studied to further explain the phenomenon’s complexity and diversity. The task will be accomplished through bidirectional research secondments distributed along the entire task duration with a stronger involvement of ERs and ESRs belonging to the involved units. The task results will be gathered in a final report on the cultural roots of EJ (D3.4).
  No. of PM per secondment per partner: LMU: 4, UPO: 4, UAM: 3, UP1: 3, UNL: 4, FIMA: 1, UFSC: 1, FUHEM: 4. Tot=24

Work package – The strategic level of ecological justice

Objectives

WP4 aims at establishing a plan to achieve long-term practices on EJ to further contribute to the development of an “ecological citizenship”. The main WP activities will consist in R&I and Transfer of Knowledge (through and after secondments) including reintegration

Description

• T4.1 Mapping and comparison of forms of citizen participation with respect to EJ (M31-42; Task Leader UPO, with all Bs and APs). This task will consist of a mapping of civil society initiatives, currently implementing the conceptual premises of EJ. The task includes the study of the forms of organisation (whether these are formal or occasional institutions) and the support they have from state or international bodies to fulfil their objectives, to be performed mainly through desk research in its initial phase. The preliminary results derived from this initial phase will be compared with each other in order to identify common patterns; this comparative phase will be accomplished through bidirectional secondments involving both ESR and ER belonging to the partners taking part in the WP. A secondary activity of the task will consist in fostering contacts between citizen initiatives engaged in eco-activism so as to create conditions for future cooperation. In order to validate the outcomes of the results of this task and to finalise the content of D4.1, an operational workshop will be organised in FIMA (Chile) in M42 involving all the partners which will tackle, among others, the forms of participation of citizens and institutions in EJ.
  No. of PM per secondment per partner: UPO: 4, UAM: 4, LMU: 4, UNL: 3, UFSC: 1, ECO: 2, FUHEM: 5. Tot.=23
• T4.2 Mapping and comparison of the participation in EJ instances by private and public legal entities (M31-42; Task Leader ECO, with all Bs and APs). Within this task, the project group will map this type of initiatives to ascertain the implementation of the conceptual premises of EJ, addressing both the non-profit and the profit sector. As regards the latter sector, a special attention will be devoted to the extractive sector, for the reasons explained in Sect. 1.2.2, capitalising on the presence of ECO, a for-profit entity, which will contribute to ascertain, thanks to its expertise in the field, the compliance of the sector to the main existing directives with respect to environmental protection and to analyze the main EJ instances that affected this specific area. The task will be realized with the same implementation path described for T4.1: namely an initial desk research phase aimed at analyzing the forms of organisation, their nature and the type of support that they have managed to achieve, will be followed by a comparative phase aimed at identifying common patterns and conclusions. This latter phase will be accomplished by means of bidirectional secondments involving theWP participants. In addition, the outcomes stemming from this task will be discussed during the scientific workshop in Chile in M42 which will set the basis for the finalisation of D4.1.
  
  No. of PM per secondment per partner: ECO: 3, UPO: 3, UAM: 6, LMU: 3, UP1: 5, UNL: 3, FIMA: 1, UFSC: 1,FUHEM: 1. Tot.=26
• T4.3 Drawing up of the Speak4Nature White Book on EJ (M43-47; Task Leader UAM, with all Bs and APs). T4.3 activities will be performed by an interdisciplinary group of researchers and non-academic staff in representation of the entire consortium, which will closely cooperate to draw up a set of recommendations and guidelines intended for both civil society and all the other institutions potentially interested in EJ, in order to provide them with an operational toolkit to assist any interested party in promoting and channelling instances of EJ in local, national and international contexts. In the framework of this task the secondment activities will be very intense among all partners in order to finalise the White Book, which will be presented and validated during Speak4Nature final conference to be organised in M47 at UPO. In occasion of the final conference, the final Speak4Nature Network School will also be organised, addressing several topics, among which training sessions on environmental litigation addressed to environmental associations, stakeholders and legal operators will take place; streaming and translation services will be ensured so to maximise stakeholders’ participation. The main aim is to improve access to justice in ecological matters.
  No. of PM per secondment per partner: UAM: 1, UPO: 4, LMU: 4, UP1: 5, UNL: 4, FIMA: 2, UFSC: 2, ECO: 3, FUHEM: 3. Tot.=28
• T4.4 Establishment of an Observatory on Ecological Justice (OEJ) (M40-48; Task Leader UPO, with all Bs and APs). As of M40 the consortium will set the basis for the establishment of the OEJ (see Sect. 1.2.2., RC3 and 2.3.2 for further details). In the framework of this task the consortium will: discuss and draft the organization statute (deciding on its legal form); define the criteria to be adopted to govern the accession of new members; establish a plan for the economic sustainability of the OEJ. The outcomes of this task will flow in D4.3, which will contain a complete business plan for the OEJ, which will be established within 6 months from the project end. D4.3 will describe in detail: a) legal form of the OEJ; b) applicable law; c) internal governance; d) economic and financial sustainability; e) evaluation of the assets to be provided to the new legal entity; f) IPR protection strategy.
  No. of PM per secondment per partner: UPO: 2, UAM: 2, LMU: 2, UP1: 2, UNL: 3, FIMA: 1, UFSC: 1, ECO: 2, FUHEM: 2. Tot.=17

Work package – Dissemination, Communication and Exploitation

Objectives

WP5 will pursue the following objectives:

1. to promote the exploitation of project results in further research, collaborations, education and project engagement activities;
2. to disseminate and communicate the project results;
3. to guarantee the sustainability of results, ensuring the adoption and transferability of Spaek4Nature developed strategies and approaches. As requested by the call, no PM for secondments have been considered for this WP, as the consortium will organise the international dissemination meetings in occasion of the other plenary gatherings planned during the project; however, it is important to highlight that all the WP tasks will be accomplished with the strong involvement of all partners.

Description

• T5.1 Planning of the communication and dissemination activities (M1-M3, and then updated during the entire project lifespan; Task Leader: UPO, with all). The Dissemination and Communication Plan (DCP) will be discussed and approved by M3. It will describe strategies, target groups, measures, schedules of dissemination and communication activities, including the respective target indicators and assessment means (see Sect. 2.3.1).
• T5.2 Setting up and maintaining the project website (M1-M48; Task Leader: UNL, with all Bs and APs). The website will be online at M3 with the functionalities described in Sect. 2.3.1 and 2.3.2; specific arrangements will be made and specified in the DCP to guarantee that the website is updated for at least 5 years after the project end.
• T5.3 Targeted dissemination activities (M1-M48; Task Leader: UNL, with all Bs and APs). Dissemination activities, will include the followings:
  1. Design of project promotional material (by M2): a logo will be designed and brochures will be prepared in and widely distributed;
  2. Publications: scientific articles will be published in international peer-reviewed indexed journals, respecting the Open Access policy;
  3. Events of different types will be targeted:
     1. Project dissemination events, which will be organised as follows: two Mid-term dissemination events, to be organized in M18 in Germany (LMU) and in M36 in Argentina (UNL); a Final Dissemination event, to be organized in M47 at UPO;
     2. Events external to the consortium activities: participation of consortium members will be secured in external events of relevance for dissemination purposes with respect to the issues tackled by Speak4Nature;
     4. Invited lectures in prominent institutions worldwide;
  5. Liaison activities: Speak4Nature will liaise with international, EU-level, national, and regional projects on the same or similar issues, for exchanging good practices and experiences.
• T5.4 Policy influence (M19-M36; Task Leader: UPO, with all Bs and BAs). Policy influence is a transversal activity, dealing with a day-to-day effort to influence mass media and local and non-local actors. The first message the consortium intends to convey to policy-makers is that the structural transformation of the way in which we address the question of justice itself is an advantage for any type of country under any point of view. During the project, the consortium will keep informed relevant policy-makers in relation to the lesson learnt during the project so as to promote policy makers’ evolution and consequent structural change. A precise strategy for engaging with policy-makers will be included in DCP (D5.1); furthermore, a precise plan of actions for activities to be performed beyond the project duration will be included in the final version of the Exploitation and Sustainability Plan (D5.6).
• T5.5 Communication activities (M1-M48; Task Leader: UPO, with all Bs and APs). The communication activities will consist in the followings:
  1. Intensive use of the project website, that will be at least bilingual (English and Spanish). It will describe success stories and main project findings in styles accessible to audiences with different cultural levels and backgrounds;
  2. Social media (M1-48). The potential of social media will be fully exploited through Twitter, Facebook and YouTube to communicate information on ongoing activities, publications etc. Speak4Nature will use the established social media accounts of its partners;
  3. Press releases and other media relations (M1-M48) involving the issuing of press releases intended for newspapers, press agencies, journalist associations, science magazines, free press and web magazines, trying to ensure the maximum geographical coverage so as to reach out to wider audiences. Use of radio and TV will also be considered;
  4. Participation in Open Science events (M6-M36) will be secured, targeting events such as Science Festivals, Open science Fairs or Science Communication events organised at least within the countries represented in the consortium
  5. Seminars/activities for students at schools: in Y4, the Speak4Nature message will be shared with youngster through activities in the schools, to share with students (aged 12-18) the lesson learnt and the work done during the implementation of the project so as to contribute in including EJ principles in civic education in the younger generations. At least 2 schools/partners will be visited per country, at least 60 students/school; the means of interaction will consist in: photo exhibition/audio visual movies, discussions panels, and brainstorming events.
• T5.6 IPR management (M1-M36; Task Leader: UPO, with all Bs). Concerning the IPR, Speak4Nature will follow an open access policy for what concerns the results and the inherent publications, with due confidentiality regarding to personal data. All publications, data elaborations and results will be available for all, open and public. Project results which are likely to be exploited will be protected according to the PA to be signed by all partners.
• T5.7 Exploitation and sustainability (M10-M36; Task Leader: UNL, with all Bs and BAs). The task aims at maximising results’ exploitation by taking all emerging opportunities to mainstream the results achieved and ensure their transferability and sustainability. Partners will define individual plans for results’ exploitation in occasion of the preparation of the first version of the Exploitation and Sustainability Plan (D5.2). The plan will be revised and updated during the project and submitted in its final version in M48 (D5.5). The final version of the document will pay particular attention to ensure the sustainability of the main project exchange mechanisms in order to:
  1. formalise the staff exchange mechanism with formal international cooperation agreements;
  2. set-up joint doctorates on Speak4Nature themes;
  3. maintain operational the Network Schools as well as the training and secondment mechanisms developed by the project.