Legal Eagles

HATS OFF TO PANAMA FOR NEW LAWS FOR NATURE

Good news for Panama who last month joined countries such as Colombia, New Zealand, Chile and Mexico which have all granted nature legal protection and the 'right to exist'. Earlier this year Italy also made protecting the environment and biodiversity, part of its constitution - meaning that their parliament must now work to safeguard the country's ecosystems for future generations.

After a year of debate by the country's National Assembly, Panamanian President Laurentino Cortizo signed off the ground-breaking new legislation declaring that nature has "the right to exist, persist and regenerate its life cycles". This means that the governments future policies will have to respect the rights of Panama's ecosystems, including its tropical forests, rivers and mangroves (home to a wide variety of biodiversity including two of the world's most powerful eagles: the Harpy Eagle and the Crested Eagle) whilst also being legally obliged to promote the rights of nature through its foreign policies.

Defining 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", the legislation will come into effect in 2023.