Following its groundbreaking law that granted legal rights to a river (see Strategic CSR – Personhood), New Zealand has taken another step forward in its recognition of the importance of the natural environment to its culture and heritage:
"A settlement under which a New Zealand mountain has been granted the same legal right as a person has become law after years of negotiations."
Specifically:
"It means Taranaki Maunga [Mt Taranaki] will effectively own itself, with representatives of the local tribes, iwi, and government working together to manage it. The agreement aims to compensate Māori from the Taranaki region for injustices done to them during colonisation – including widespread land confiscation."
While I appreciate the symbolic value of this decision, in terms of respecting the Maori culture, tradition, and perspective on the natural environment ("natural features, including mountains, are ancestors and living beings"), it is challenging to see the practical implications. What does it mean for a mountain to "own itself"? The value of treating corporations as legal persons is that they can own assets and be sued in a court of law. This underpins the law of contracts and property rights, which are fundamental to our economic system. Firms also form the apex of the stakeholder structure, so create value for others, rather than needing value to be created for them:
"[Government Minister] Paul Goldsmith acknowledged that … it had been agreed that access to the mountain would not change and that 'all New Zealanders will be able to continue to visit and enjoy this most magnificent place for generations to come.'"
In this case, the name of the mountain will be changed, which his meaning, but it is difficult to know how this fits into the strategic CSR perspective, given that the mountain cannot communicate discernable interests that can be met. Rather, anyone seeking to interact with the mountain will need to deal with the appointed human 'representatives' of the mountain (who no doubt have their own values and interests):
"It means Taranaki Maunga [Mt Taranaki] will effectively own itself, with representatives of the local tribes, iwi, and government working together to manage it."
Given that the mountain cannot communicate its interests to those representatives (as far as we know), we will have to rely on the genuine intent with which they interpret what is best for the mountain:
"The mountain is not the first of New Zealand's natural feature's to be granted legal personhood. In 2014, the Urewera native forest became the first to gain such status, followed by the Whanganui River in 2017."
Take care
David
David Chandler
© Sage Publications, 2023
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New Zealand mountain gets same legal rights as a person
By Kathryn Armstrong
January 30, 2025
BBC News
