Why is an Ecuador forest petitioning for the rights to a song? | Explainer News [Video]

A petition has been submitted to Ecuador’s copyright office to recognise Los Cedros cloud, an Ecuadorian forest roughly 15,000 acres (6,070 hectares) in size, as a co-creator of a musical composition.

This proposal aims to grant legal recognition to nature’s role in artistic creation, potentially setting a new precedent in environmental and copyright law.

So what does the petition ask for and can forests, lakes or other natural bodies have legal rights in the same way that humans can?

The petition by the More than Human Life (MOTH) project, which advocates for “advancing the rights of humans and non-humans”, demands that Los Cedros forest be given formal credit as the co-creator of the “Song of the Cedars”.

The song was composed by musician Cosmo Sheldrake, writer Robert MacFarlane and field mycologist Giuliana Furci from the Fungi Foundation, a US conservation group.

In a recent interview, MacFarlane told the UK’s Guardian …