Panama has taken a significantly new approach to environmental protection through its legal system. While many countries have laws that prohibit certain human behavior that would damage the environment, Panama is taking it one step further.
Scientists, politicians, and lawyers have come together to assign rights to nature, just like humans have certain rights to protect our lives and properties.
EcoWatch had some more details on this new legal approach.
“Because western legal systems largely function under a “rights-based” framework, recognizing Nature’s inherent rights provides the natural world (and people wanting to protect it) a legal basis with which to advocate for more protective policies and under which to bring causes of action.”
The first thing this new way of thinking does is to acknowledge that nature is a subject of law, just like people and organizations. This includes the right to exist and persist, which should help to stop a lot of pollution and other human activity that exists in the gray areas of the law.
It will be interesting to see how this new legal framework operates and whether more people will take action to protect nature by abiding by the law.
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