The background
On October 4, 2025, Zoöp Amstelpark was launched as a public Zoöp by Zone2Source, a testing ground for art and ecology in the Amstelpark, and the Municipality of Amsterdam. A Zoöp is an organization that learns how the interests of all life can be taken into account in its decisions. Zoöp Amstelpark is a learning space for the city, where we experiment together with citizens and policymakers on how we can live together in a city that consists not only of 1 million people but of trillions of lives. To this end, the City Council adopted an initiative proposal to experiment with new forms of democracy in which voices of life other than humans are also given a seat at the table. Since then, educational institutions such as the Amsterdam Sustainability Institute of the Vrije Universiteit have also joined Zoöp Amstelpark.

What are we going to do?
While in this first year we mainly mapped out the area and policy processes, we are now going to investigate how we can take concrete steps towards expanding democrating processes to include other than humans. Together with the Zoönomic Institute and the Rights of Nature Foundation, we are organizing an afternoon where we will come together with various municipal initiatives and interested parties to see how far we have come and what is needed to effectively implement rights of nature into policy. Several municipalities in the Netherlands are currently exploring how to work with rights of nature or have expressed interest in becoming a Zoöp. During this afternoon, we will bring together these two movements, which reinforce each other and form a path towards the same goal: an eco-just society.

Jan van de Venis (head of Legal Affairs at the Rights of Nature Foundation) will outline a step-by-step plan he has developed for municipalities to anchor nature rights in regulations and policy. The goal of this guide for municipalities is to not wait for problems to arise but to
bring nature interests to the table during discussions and decision-making right from the start.

Following a lecture on the Zoöp as a learning organization and an explanation of the pathway to Rights of Nature by Jan van de Venis, we will work on three case studies:
– Zoöp Amstelpark
– Rights of Nature Amstel
– Declaration Rights of Nature Amsterdam Noord

In three working groups, we will apply the step-by-step plan to these cases together. We will identify where we see opportunities and room to experiment and apply practical tips to current policy, what is still needed, and how we can get started concretely. There will be ample opportunity for the various participants to exchange experiences.

The program

13:00 – 13:15  Welcome and introduction by Alice Smits, director of Zone2Source

13:15 – 13:30  The Zoöp as a learning environment for the rights of nature, Klaas Kuitenbrouwer from the Zoönomic Institute

13:30 – 14:30  Lecture by Jan van de Venis on the Pathway for Municipalities on the Rights of Nature

14:30 – 15:00  Break

15:00 – 17:00  Three working groups work on the case studies

17:00 – 17:30  Central summary of the case studies and handing over of the Pathways to a municipal representative with closing remarks by Jan van de Venis

17:30 – 18:00  Drinks

Are you interested to join us, to build on Rights of Nature together, you can apply here.
For more information contact Alice Smits info@zone2source.net