Signatures collected

The Reuss Initiative committee has collected the 5,000 signatures required to submit a constitutional initiative in the canton of Lucerne. The initiative was launched on 26 April 2025, and the signatures collected will be submitted to the canton in mid-January 2026.
The Reuss Initiative demands that all public waters in the canton of Lucerne be granted fundamental rights and legal personality. This is intended to close a significant gap in the legal system, because unlike humans, companies or public institutions, non-human nature has no legal personality and no fundamental rights.
This is devastating for the waters in the canton of Lucerne. The waters are overfertilised and polluted with pesticides and other chemical residues, even though this could be largely prevented under the Water Protection Act.
But where political pressure is too great, the canton does not enforce the Water Protection Act – and then, crucially, nothing happens because the waters affected cannot defend themselves. Nature has no right to rights. The Reuss Initiative wants to change this.

Picture: Rolf Spoerri, one of the signature collectors. Photo by Marianne Schulze