Jim Durocher, one of the leaders of Florida's Rights of Nature movement, talks about trying to get a constitutional amendment on Florida's 2024 ballot Artwork

The Nature of Florida with Oscar Corral

The Nature of Florida is the premiere podcast in the Sunshine state dedicated exclusively to environmental topics. Journalist and Filmmaker Oscar Corral hosts the podcast, which features a different interview every episode with someone who is passionate and knowledgeable about an environmental issue. Mermaids, surfers, journalists, scientists, leaders, advocates: Oscar selects people from a wide variety of backgrounds to talk about Florida's globally unique environment, its challenges and solutions for preserving it for the next generation. How do industries like phosphate mining, agriculture, septic tanks and development affect the environment? And how do people who enjoy Florida's outdoors, like fishermen, surfers and hunters, see things? We hear from the people who are at the forefront of the state-wide struggle to save what's left of Florida's natural world. This podcast is sponsored in part by The Everglades Foundation; the Fish and Wildlife Foundation of Florida and The Felburn Foundation.

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The Nature of Florida with Oscar Corral

Jim Durocher, one of the leaders of Florida's Rights of Nature movement, talks about trying to get a constitutional amendment on Florida's 2024 ballot

May 03, 2022 • Oscar Corral

Jim Durocher is one of the leaders of a statewide campaign to put a constitutional amendment on the ballot in Florida in 2024 to grant rights to nature. The Rights of Nature movement is just getting started around the United States, and in 2020, Florida took a leading role when Orange County, home of Orlando, became the largest municipality to grant rights to nature. The vote there was overwhelmingly in support. 89% of people approved the law. In Florida, getting 89% of people to agree on anything seems like a fantasy. But it actually happened. Now the activists behind that law want to take it to the voters statewide. Durocher explains that laws in Florida that are intended to regulate the environment for clean air and water are failing miserably, and measures such as Rights of Nature are one of the few tools left to save what’s left of Florida’s unique springs, rivers, beaches and forests.