From 15 to 17 September 2025, academics, lawyers, Indigenous knowledge holders, government officials and NGOs gathered at North-West University’s Faculty of Law for the third annual colloquium on Animal Welfare, Human Rights, Rights of Nature and Human-Wildlife Coexistence. Central questions included: can South Africa live “in harmony with Nature”? What does coexistence mean, and how can we implement it?
Humanity is at a turning point. Earth Overshoot Day, the date marking every year when humanity’s resource use exceeds the planet’s capacity to regenerate, fell on 24 July in 2025. South Africa crossed its overshoot day even earlier, on 2 July, 22 days ahead of the global average. This means that we destroy nearly twice what our ecosystems can regenerate. Decades of scientific evidence warn that our conservation models, though well intentioned, are failing, while our biodiversity is shrinking and crucial systems are collapsing. We measure, manage and mitigate impacts, but as species and ecosystems vanish, it becomes increasingly evident that the current system is not working.
The concept of living in harmony with Nature, in a manner that protects, respects and coexists with the natural world, has been a recurring theme in global policy for three decades, primarily in the context of sustainable development. The UN World Charter for Nature, then the Rio Declaration and in 2022, the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework with its decision CBD/COP/15/L.6, recognised that Indigenous Knowledge is key to achieving the 2050 vision of living in harmony with Nature. Later that year, the Stockholm+50 Declaration urged countries to integrate this principle into law and policy.
South Africa followed in 2023, when its White Paper on Biodiversity explicitly incorporated harmony with Nature and Ubuntu as guiding principles.
From harmony with Nature to harmonious coexistence
Harmonious coexistence within Nature (“HCWN”) goes further. It places humans as part of Nature, and it translates global aspirations into a locally grounded paradigm, rooted in African ecocentrism and relational values. Philosophies such as Ubuntu and Mupo in South Africa, Ukama in Zimbabwe, Ujamaa in Tanzania and Ma’at in Egypt converge in this conceptual “basket” which is HCWN, emphasising reciprocity, interdependence, respect and responsibility across generations. Parallel worldviews such as Buen Vivir or Sumak Kawsay from the Andean Indigenous traditions echo these principles, affirming that true wellbeing arises from balance, community and harmony with the living Earth.
South African legal framework
South Africa provides an interesting constitutional/legislative entry point, with a transformative mandate to heal past divisions, build a society based on social justice and human rights and restructure society to be more equitable. Section 24 of the Constitution guarantees the right to an environment not harmful to health or wellbeing, for present and future generations. The National Environmental Management Act, which was enacted to give effect to section 24, imposes a duty of care to prevent, minimise and remedy harm. The White Paper on Biodiversity (2023) calls for governance to be guided by the principle of Ubuntu. As legal scholar Danford Chibvongodze argues, Ubuntu must extend beyond human relationships to encompass the environment and all life.
Indigenous wisdom
Indigenous traditions affirm reciprocal interdependence and a spiritual dimension of life, reminding us of an ethical obligation grounded in respect, care and reciprocity.
In African Indigenous cosmologies, Rivers are revered as Ancestors, Mountains as Elders, Elephants as Healers and ecosystems as living communities with intrinsic value. To harm them is ultimately to harm ourselves. Mphatheleni Makaulule, an academic, environmental conservationist, Indigenous leader and founder of the Mupo Foundation in Venda, explained at the 2025 Environment and Justifiable Limits on Development conference: “Mupo is life and the origin of creation: the Sky, Forests, Rivers, Mountains, Animals, Plants and Oceans, all is Mupo, all is sacred, and all deserves our respect.” Within this order, life is protected in its entirety, ensuring human wellbeing and reciprocal flourishing. Ecological, cultural and spiritual health are secured.
Examples of non-harmonious coexistence
What happens when coexistence fails? We have visible examples across South Africa. In the Western Cape, Chacma baboons – intelligent, social beings displaced by habitat loss, wildfires and urban waste – are shot, paintballed, excluded from coastal natural landscapes and even killed in the name of management. In KwaZulu-Natal, shark nets and drumlines kill sharks, dolphins, rays and turtles in the name of bather safety, including in natural reserves. African penguins face many pressures, including climate change, noise, chemical pollution and even unregulated beekeeping near penguin colonies, which have caused the death of many individuals. Despite a clear obligation to protect this species, regulation and enforcement are poor, and the species continues its march towards extinction. These are not isolated incidents but symptoms of a deeper cultural disorder, one that denies Nature’s right to exist, thrive and regenerate.
Rights of nature as a bridge
We have long had two distinct knowledge systems: the Indigenous paradigm and the Western framework, which have developed largely in parallel. The central question is whether, and how, these two worldviews can be meaningfully integrated. Can we live according to Indigenous values within a contemporary society shaped by Western norms? At first glance, the two paradigms may appear incompatible. Yet, the Rights of Nature framework offers a potential bridge between them. It provides a technical and legal mechanism that integrates ethical duty with constitutional obligation, giving practical effect to the principle of harmonious coexistence.
Globally, more than 40 countries and 500 legal provisions already recognise the Rights of Nature. In July 2025, an international Court of Human Rights recognised Nature as a subject of rights through Advisory Opinion OC-32/25, affirming that all components of Nature have rights and the Rights of Nature paradigm provides effective legal tools to prevent irreversible ecological harm.
Most recently, at the IUCN World Conservation Congress, five motions concerning the Rights of Nature, including Rights for Antarctica (M055), Living in harmony with Rivers (M067) and Harmonious Coexistence (M070), were all adopted. This reflects the rapidly expanding recognition of these principles, to be adopted by states, as a cornerstone of their contemporary environmental governance.
Embedding rights of Nature and HCWN in law and life
South Africa possesses powerful tools for renewal. The next steps require us to move from managing Nature to belonging within it, from an extractive mindset to a reciprocal one. By embedding the Rights of Nature and Harmonious Coexistence within law, governance and daily practice, we choose a path where the future of environmental law is not written in statutes alone, but in the living relationships we restore, between people, land and the more-than-human world that sustains us all. DM