Nature Gains Legal Rights

Panama is officially recognizing the legal rights of nature, and thanks to the country’s new nature law, people and organizations will be in an ideal position to enforce those rights and protect ecosystems and biodiversity.

“Panama is one of the 25 most megadiverse countries globally, playing a pivotal role in preserving biodiversity and mitigating climate change,” says Constanza Prieto Figelist, Latin American legal director at the Earth Law Center. “The approval of this law is fundamental because it joins the efforts of Colombia and Ecuador to recognize the rights of nature, creating a conservation corridor in the region that opens the doors for holistic and joint governance of forests, rivers, and the ocean.”

The new law 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,” and includes 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.” The promotion of nature’s rights is now part of the government’s foreign policy. The legal rights of nature are already recognized in Bolivia, New Zealand, Bangladesh, Ecuador, Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico.