SAPIENT (sustainability and progress with interspecies equity in nature)

Purpose:

Our endeavor is to bring the international academic, political and legal community in line with basic knowledge of natural and anthropological sciences to work toward establishing within the environmental movement the principle of interspecies equity.

We reject the misconception of a hierarchy of beings. We reject that humanity is the purpose or end of the evolution of life. We reject the circular thinking that human qualities set the standard for how valuable a species is to the biosphere. Hence, we reject speciesism.

We believe that human systems of governance can both provide for humanity first while simultaneously respecting all other life. This is not to be confused with non-human animal legal rights. Rather, the mindset that all other life is a resource to be exploited for human benefit precludes healthy, sustainable human societies. We believe it is essential that all humans, regardless of economic status and even for purely anthropocentric reasons, can and must adjust our behavior with the aim of ecological integrity.