Panama Defines Nature’s Legal Rights
Panama has joined a small but growing number of countries that recognize the legal rights of nature. After more than a year of debate in the National Assembly, President Laurentino Cortizo signed legislation in February that defines nature as “a unique, indivisible and self-regulating community of living beings, elements and ecosystems interrelated to each other that sustains, contains and reproduces all beings.”
Other countries, including Colombia, Mexico, Brazil, New Zealand, Australia, and others have codified rights for nature via legislation, constitutional amendment, or judicial decisions.
In the US, where even corporations have “personal” rights, nature is increasingly recognized as worthy of rights, but at the local-government level, and usually in response to a specific threat, such as fracking. For example, the city of Pittsburgh banned fracking within its boundaries in 2017, with the City Council noting that “Natural communities and ecosystems... possess inalienable and fundamental rights to exist and flourish.”
Among the rights now extended to nature in Panama are the “right to exist, persist and regenerate its life cycles,” the “right to conserve its biodiversity,” and the “right to be restored after being affected directly or indirectly by any human activity.”
In theory, these pretty words will obligate the government to implement policy that respects these rights by protecting ecosystems, including with big-ticket items like manufacturing and energy production. Panama will also be obliged to promote the rights of nature as part of its foreign policy. In practice, we’ll see. The law takes effect in 2023.
Photo credit: Jack Hamilton / Unsplash
