We’ve collected these resources as a beginning source of support for the change that needs to evolve in our Commonwealth. Please Let us know if you have other resources you’d like to share.

James River Natural Community Bill of Rights is the ordinance written by Buckingham:We the People to protect our area from infrastructure related to the fracking industry. It is an example of how the rights of local people, the right to direct action, and the rights of Nature can be protected in the same document.

Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF): Do-it-yourself guide to Community Bill of Rights organizing
This DIY guide is intended to provide you with practical background and strategic information on how to implement health, safety, and welfare solutions to the unique problems facing your community.

CELDF: Publications offered by CELDF
Common Sense: Community rights primer from CELDF, explaining that we can’t get what we need because of  endless extraction and growth. Describes how Community Rights organizing is being leveraged by communities across the country to protect themselves and build the sustainable future they envision. Check out this article, on pages 18-19, a brief history of our country and how we got here: “Why existing law won’t stop corporations from harming your community“

Movement Rights: Asserting our right to protect our community Who decides what happens in the place where YOU live—Community or Corporations? A grassroots action toolkit for changing the rules and getting what we want!

Movement Rights:  Rights of Nature and the Economics of the Biosphere, The Stillheart Declaration In October 2013, 32 global social movement leaders convened to examine the emerging legal framework known as Rights of Nature, or Rights of Mother Earth. This declaration emerged and was signed by the participants.

Movement Rights: Rights of Nature and Mother Earth: Sowing Seeds of Resistance, Love and Change Climate Change itself is the Earth’s demand for human system change; it is a wake up call to shake off old ways that got us here; and to create vibrant, local, living economies respectful of the living cycles of Mother Earth and Father Sky. It means shifting the legal landscape that has propped up industrialization by treating ecosystems as property to be owned and destroyed. 

Virginia Environmental Justice Collaborative (VEJC): VACRN is a partner member of VEJC. We align with the Rules of Engagement espoused by VEJC. Read them here.