Nature's Constitutional Assembly 2026
Sunday June 7th, 10.00-17.00, at Himmelbjerggården, Ny Himmelbjergvej 15, Ry
How do we bring our laws into alignment with the fundamental principles of the laws of nature?
Join us at the Nature’s Constitutional Assembly to explore and experience how we can create a democratic foundation in which nature is given a voice, space, and rights that can be anchored in the constitution. This year, the Assembly unfolds in connection with the Nordic Conference on the Rights of Nature and the Development of Democracy.
PROGRAMME:
10.00-10.15: Welcome
10.15-11.00: Opening with Teater Viva
11.15-13.00: Workshops, round 1
13.00-14.00: Lunch
14.00-15.45: Workshops, round 2
15.45-16.15: Coffee break
16.15-17.00: Ending and closing with Teater Viva
You can experience a vibrant program of workshops and talks—held in both Danish and English. You will meet:
Pella Thiel(Embassy of the Baltic Sea), Johanne Mygind(forfatter til 'Giftig'), Martin Lee Mueller(General Secretary, Arne Næss Foundation), Jacob Rask(Copenhagen Doughnut), Jonathan Horwitz and Zara Waldebäck(Scandinavian Center for Shamanic Studies), Adam Switala(Snæfellsjökul fyrir forseta), Frej Pries Schmedes(Arternes Ambassade), Claudia Fernandez de Cordoba Farini(Living Imaginaries), Christine van Leeuwenstijn-Sponholz(interspecies communicator), Vanessa Buth(Democracy Labs), Michael Stig Ørbech(forfatter til 'Naturinspireret Lederskab'), The Nalluvia Collective(Collaborative Roleplaying), Trine Rytter Andersen(kunstner og kurator) og Jesper Saxgren(EarthWays).
There will also be activities for children by Natur og Ungdom. You can see the full programme here.
Participation in the Nature’s Constitutional Assembly is free. You can purchase coffee, cake, and a delicious campfire lunch, and you are also welcome to bring your own food.
Please register so we have an idea of how many people to expect.
The purpose of the Nature’s Constitutional Assembly is to explore and experience how we can create a democratic foundation for our society in which nature is given a voice, space, and rights that can be anchored in the constitution.
Traditionally, we approach this as a question of how nature can be incorporated into our existing legal system. This approach is based on the assumption that it is possible to fit nature’s voice into a human-made, anthropocentric order that, in its fundamental structure, has been developed to regulate relationships between humans—not between humans and the rest of life on Earth. But instead of viewing this as a question of how to integrate nature into our existing, anthropocentric, and often rigid legal systems, we propose to turn the perspective upside down.
It is not nature that must be adapted to human-made laws and institutions—it is our laws and systems of governance that must take their point of departure in nature’s own law. Nature’s law is not a metaphor, but the deepest life-sustaining order upon which all life on Earth depends: cycles, balance, reciprocity, regeneration. It is older and more fundamental than any human legislation, and it sets the ecological boundaries within which our societies can exist. It is not a choice, but a precondition for all life, and thus for any society.
Therefore, it is not nature that must be fitted into our anthropocentric systems—it is our laws, our economies, and our decision-making processes that must be shaped in accordance with the principles of nature and life.
That said, it is important to recognize that we also need to ensure that nature is protected by law here and now. Working to have the rights of nature enshrined in the constitution is a crucial step—but it cannot stand alone. Without a deeper understanding that human law must reflect and respect nature’s own principles, we risk creating solutions that are merely symbolic or insufficient.
The task is therefore twofold: we must both strive for the concrete legal protection of nature and at the same time work toward a deeper transformation, where our laws, decision-making processes, and societal structures are shaped in alignment with the order of nature.
Therefore, within the Nature’s Constitutional Assembly, we work along two parallel tracks:
The legal track:
To develop and promote concrete proposals for how nature can be granted legal protection and rights—within the constitution, legislation, and administrative practice. This also includes formulating a more far-reaching legal framework in which the destruction of ecosystems and violence against nature are equated with violence against humans.
Why should it be considered less criminal to pollute, release toxins, cause oxygen depletion, and kill fish than to commit violence against people? As nature is our most fundamental source of life, any crime against nature is, in reality, a crime against humanity and should be treated as such.
Internationally, there are ongoing efforts to recognize ecocide—the large-scale destruction of ecosystems—as a crime on par with genocide. We seek to bring this thinking into the Danish legal framework.
The ontological and cultural track:
The ontological and cultural track: To cultivate a deeper realization that we ourselves are nature, and that human law must be aligned with the order of nature. This involves transforming our worldview—from seeing nature as a resource to recognizing it as a living community of which we are a part, and understanding that any destructive action against nature is ultimately an act of self-destruction.
Without this inner transformation, even the best legislation will be insufficient. This track is about fostering that shift in understanding—cultivating a culture and a democracy in which nature’s voice is not only heard as a legal demand, but as a moral and existential imperative.
The two tracks are interdependent: legal protection without a shift in our view of nature becomes technical, weakly rooted, and too easy to circumvent, while a new understanding of nature without concrete legal changes remains a vision without real impact on how we produce, consume, and manage nature in practice.
Memories from the Assembly in 2025
Fotos:
Avi Ohayon
Gert Medom
What do we want?
Nature is in crisis as never before, and in Denmark it is under extreme pressure. Denmark is the EU country with the least protected nature. Our historical overexploitation of the natural world has led to a dramatic loss of animal and plant species, widespread pollution of groundwater, oxygen depletion in Danish inland waters, and extremely high emissions of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
For decades, successive Danish governments have neglected nature and allowed overconsumption and pollution on a scale that is now suffocating the diversity of habitats and voices in the Danish landscape.
We need to develop the democratic foundation of our society so that nature—and its diversity of species and ecosystems—can be given a voice, space, and rights. This is what we are working towards through the Nature’s Constitutional Assembly.
We must further develop democracy
The Nature’s Constitutional Assembly is a recurring gathering that aims to revitalize Himmelbjerget as a cultural meeting place. Throughout history, Himmelbjerget has been a site for visionary ideas. It was here, in 1839, that Steen Steensen Blicher called the Danish people to a public assembly and helped spread the visionary ideas that laid the foundation for democracy, the cooperative movement, and the folk high school tradition.
We seek to carry this vision forward through conversations about how we can develop democracy and create a popular framework for a new path—from Blicher and Grundtvig to Gaia and the wider community of life.
The current situation calls for a new global grassroots movement that embraces an expanded understanding of democracy—one that does not only operate with human rights, but also grants nature and its diversity of species and ecosystems a voice and rights.
We must come to understand that nature has value in itself if we are to secure a future in which coming generations can thrive.
We hope to see you at Nature's Consitutional Assembly on June 7th 2026
Find out more about the Conference on the Rights of Nature and the Future of Democracy in the Nordic Region
