Could the agricultural sector benefit from the recognition of the legal personality of the St. Lawrence River? This is the question that Professor Hugo Muñoz has looked into and the answer is positive, especially if we are considering a new denomination of origin.1.
Posted at 11:00 a.m.
Effectively the recognition of the legal personality will integrate an environmental value added to the agricultural products which will be produced thanks to the water of the river and its tributaries. It will be a question of rooting the product in the territory and allowing it to preserve its own character to limit its potential of assimilation in a globalized market. This denomination of origin could thus become a competitive advantage at all levels that will facilitate the marketing of products from the St. Lawrence watershed.
This means that the recognition of a legal personality for the St. Lawrence River has the potential to bring about many gains for the agricultural community. Through this opportunity to create co-benefits between the agricultural world and river systems, this holistic approach highlighted by the river enlightens us in order to solve the agro-environmental issues we face, from upstream to downstream.
Admittedly, considering the mitigation of environmental impacts linked to agriculture is a sensitive subject for actors in the agricultural sector. However, these neglected impacts represent the vast majority of time costs in various forms and require the implementation of actions to mitigate them.
In a context of hypercompetitiveness on world agricultural markets, it turns out that the components of time and money are critical, especially for agricultural succession.
In many cases, the benefits of impact mitigation actions are collective, even if the costs may at first sight appear only individual.
In this sense, the new Sustainable Agriculture Plan (PAD) provides for royalties linked to good agricultural practices whose collective benefits are recognized (including intercropping and cover crops, extended riparian strips and plantations). Thus, this PAD could pave the way for a new approach. It would recognize that the burden of matching local food production to respecting the rights of Nature will not rest solely on a small number of actors. Among them, as we know, the agricultural world is already facing many logistical, environmental, financial and regulatory challenges.
Access to water is therefore one of the main issues in the agricultural sector. In this period of climate change, forecasts point in Quebec in particular to an increase in extreme weather events associated with a decrease in the flow of waterways and a significant lowering of groundwater tables. Overall, a “sawtooth” hydrograph is expected, which complicates access to water due to prolonged periods of drought and high occasional flows. This contributes very little to the replenishment of the reservoirs, which are so important for the agricultural sector.
On the other hand, the recognition of the legal personality of the St. Lawrence River, which adequately integrates the concept of watershed, could make it possible to rely on the protection (even ultimately the creation of recharge zones upstream), thus improving the resilience of the systems. to hydrological changes associated with climate change.
So it’s time to work together, in line with natural river processes, and everyone will come out a winner!
Converging the PAD and the recognition of the legal personality of the St. Lawrence River allows us to highlight several common objectives and mutually reinforcing frameworks. For example, the protection of the rights to the integrity of the river, to its preservation and to the respect of its life cycles would directly contribute to the objectives of the PAD of optimizing water management and improving biodiversity. .
Indeed, the protection of the right to respect for the life cycles of the river will ultimately make it possible to reduce the costs linked to the damage of the spring floods and a better prediction of the risks, which goes hand in hand with the measures of the aforementioned PAD aimed at doubling the agricultural areas. designed to promote biodiversity.
A sharing of responsibilities is also a result envisaged by the legal personality of the river, with the recognition of this right as preventive measures that must be taken by all actors having an impact on the St. Lawrence, and not only by the agricultural community. .
In this regard, municipalities, Aboriginal communities, scientific organizations and NGOs have already joined in large numbers in the Saint-Laurent Alliance, aiming for this innovative recognition of the legal personality of the river’s watershed. It is essential that the agricultural sector is also represented in the discussions.
This Alliance aims to change the anthropocentric paradigm as other countries have already done successfully. Examples include Ecuador, Bolivia, New Zealand, Colombia, Australia and several cities in the United States. In this sense, the initiative of the International Observatory for the Rights of Nature (OIDN) will materialize with the filing of a bill on this subject. Such a legal framework envisages the representation of the river through ancestral and legal guardians who would carry the voice of the river in its best interest.
The bill also proposes the implementation of the integrated management model by watershed for the river, by integrating national and regional strategic committees. The agricultural sector will have a crucial role within the framework of these committees, hence the need for it to participate in the construction of a new social pact for the river.
The agricultural world would therefore be invited to view this opportunity to be at the discussion table with a positive eye, as well as the potential for the protection of the rights of the river. Respect for recognized rights will have an impact on various actors, upstream and downstream, across several regions and basins, allowing a holistic view of the river and having the potential to develop concerted and responsible actions.
* Louis-Gabriel is a geographer, specialist in aquatic environments; Yenny Vega Cardenas is a lawyer, specialist in water law; and Ines Benadda has a law degree.
1. Muñoz Hugo, “The legal personality of rivers and food sovereignty, tools for local development”. In A legal personality for the Saint-Lauren Rivert, by Yenny Vega and Daniel Turp, 237-25, Montreal: JFD, 2021.