The main cause of today's tragic devastation of the planet - the climate crisis, the biodiversity crisis, the dying forests, the destruction of agricultural land, the extinction of species - is our anthropocentric view of the world, the idea that we are superior to the natural world, that everything in nature is our property, and that the goal, even the meaning of our life, is constant economic growth. This has led us to the mistaken reduction of the biosphere to a mere storehouse of resources and to its excessive use and abuse without any limits.

However, this crisis has also made it clear to us that nature has its ecological limits and that we are not separate from it. We are an integral part of the impenetrable web of a great earthly community – called Mother Earth in indigenous cultures – from whose immense creativity we were born and on whom we depend for our lives, not only materially but also for our psychological health. As Thomas Berry says: we need nature for our soul. The biosphere as a community of subjects is, according to the German biologist Andreas Weber "directly linked to the formation of our emotional identities and therefore plays a huge role in human culture"The destruction and disappearance of species seriously threaten our innermost being, while the work of protecting and saving nature heals it.

“How we understand the existence of plants and animals will determine our own future. … We must save nature to enable the continuous development of life.”

Andreas Weber

At this year's seminar "Anima animalia and the rights of nature" Through this lens, we will try to look at our relationship with the creatures closest to us – animals – and answer some questions: How has our understanding of animals (their intelligence, emotions, languages and cultures) deepened recently and how has this affected the current status of their protection? How is the rescue of some endangered species developing and what are the important challenges in this regard? What role do wild animals play in the preservation and restoration of ecosystems and in the fight against the climate crisis? Scientists are finding that coexistence with animals significantly helps reduce stress and improve human health and even consider that our symbiosis with some animals led to the evolution of some typical human characteristics in the past. However, the most important thing for us today is to realize that we ourselves are animals, which we usually forget, or rather dreaming “poetic animals”. According to David Abram, we should awaken our suppressed animal senses and open ourselves to the revitalizing experience of our real emotional and physical connectedness with the rest of life. From this perspective, animals today play an irreplaceable role in the very development of our culture.

Without the company of animals, as Freya Mathews points out, we simply cannot live. Living with animals makes us more human, more loving, because it situates us within the web of creation, within that meaningful interpenetration of being. As Andreas Weber says: "We should protect other beings because we love them. We love them because we are part of them, and even more because they are part of us." It is from here that new radical approaches to protecting the Earth and all its beings are emerging today, based on their recognition as living entities (subjects) with their own legal rights. It is a legal revolution in the true sense of the word, moving us from a story of exploiting nature to a story of living in harmony with all our fellow Earth citizens in a way that is mutually beneficial. We are part of a larger Earth family, and our health and well-being depend on the health and well-being of this entire community. We will imagine the main events and milestones of this tumultuously developing movement, some of its key figures (Christopher Stone, Thomas Berry, Cormac Cullinan, etc.), institutions and documents (the Universal Declaration of the Rights of Mother Earth), and we will try to consider how we could be inspired by its ideas, methods and methods in our country.

– Jiri Zemanek

"The world is not a collection of objects, it is a community of subjects, and everything has its rights..."

Thomas Berry

Lecturers and seminar program

The main guest and lecturer of the seminar will be a prominent German biologist and philosopher Andreas Weber, who in a series of lectures "Community of subjects" will present a new understanding of life as a process of embodied subjectivity (Organism as Self, Ecosystems as Processes of Mutual Care), as well as an understanding of the importance of animals to our lives (The Light in the Eyes of a Cub). Leading Australian ecophilosopher Freya Mathews He shares his vision of why it is important for us to live in a community of animals and why it is important for nature itself. Evolutionary biologist and outstanding conservationist Arthur F. Sniegon (Save the Elephant) will introduce us to their extensive activities to save elephants and wildlife in Central Africa. Jan Stejskal (Safari Park Dvůr Králové) will present a unique scientific project to save northern white rhinos, which he coordinates. Ecologist George Malik (Living Water) will talk about the return and ethology of falcons and wolves in our country and about the Living Landscape model. Poet and publicist Ludek Certik In his talk, he will talk about some of the tragic consequences of the idea of progress for the animal world and why it is important that we allow the non-human world to re-enter our stories. Pavel Jansta outlines the inspiring Neo-Confucian concept of man as a fractal entity, connected to the universe through "li", right action; as a being who loves others and strives for the benefit of the entire earthly community - human and non-human.

Leading Australian lawyer Michelle Maloney (AELA) will present a critique of traditional environmental law and the concept of the rights of nature as one of the elements of a new jurisprudence of the Earth, crucial for the development of a new civilization. George Zemanek outlines how animal rights expanded in the 20th and 21st centuries; and recalls the genesis of the movement for nature's rights and its major milestones and figures, including the Universal Declaration of the Rights of Mother Earth. Landscape Architect Klara Salzmann (FA CTU Prague) will speak about the necessity of legal protection of watercourses in our country. Alena Malikova will introduce Rheinhaus' theses on plant rights and Barbora Kinkalova will present New Zealand as a pioneer in the field of nature rights. Other actors are likely to join the program. We will also screen two documentaries: one about the nature rights movement and the other about Pleistocene Park.

There is still something of the eagle left in us, something of the kestrel, something of the feline still left in us, that little bit of wind in the blood, that little bit of heat, senses as sharp as a fist wedge — Luděk Čertík

Accommodation and total payment

The seminar will take place in the ecological center DOTEK in Horní Maršov (no. 175) in the Krkonoše Mountains, where we will also live and eat; some participants will be accommodated in the SEVER center - capacity maximum 40 people, 25 in DOTEK and 15 in SEVER. Total price for accommodation and meals for one participant for the entire seminar is total 4020,-CZK (accommodation: 2,220 CZK, meals: 1,800 CZK). Seminar fee 5,000 CZK, for people with lower incomes: 4,000 CZK. Total: 9020,-CZK (8020,-CZK).

Please send us your application to one of the email addresses or phone numbers listed below (Jiří Zemánek, Alena Malíková, Tomáš Hrůza). The condition for participation is sending deposit of 1,500 CZK to account number at Fio banka, as.: 2901522796/2010

"When we learn 'about' nature, nature becomes the object of study, which leads to its exploitation. But when we learn 'from' nature, we establish a close relationship with it, which presupposes humility and respect for the mystery of natural processes."

Satish Kumar

Contacts

• George Zemanek, sarvanga@centrum.cz, 777 117 466
• Alena Malikova, alena.malikova@bioinstitut.cz, 604 905 611
• Tomas Hruza, tomashruza@gmail.com, 775 052 607