Ecolex Logo
The gateway to
environmental law
Search results » Jurisprudence

Judgement No. C-598-10

Country/Territory
Colombia
Type of court
National - higher court
Date
Jul 27, 2010
Source
UNEP, InforMEA
Court name
Corte Constitucional
Seat of court
Bogotá D. C.
Reference number
D-7980
Language
Spanish
Subject
Wild species & ecosystems, Legal questions
Abstract

The Colombian Constitutional Court is asked to review the constitutionality of the section 16 of the Article 31 of the Law 99 of 1993.

The applicants challenge the decision of the legislator, which empowers the regional environmental authorities the power to manage protected areas.  Also, the law also gives an authorization to remove or change the destination or affectation of such protected areas.

The applicants argued that the empowerment of these  regional environmental authorities implies ignoring the duty of the State to protect the natural resources of the nation; ignoring that parks are for public use and therefore are inalienable; ignoring that removing areas of parks means to violate the State's duty to preserve the diversity and integrity of the environment;  and finally, ignoring that the State has the obligation to plan the management and exploitation of natural resources to ensure sustainable development, conservation, restoration or replacement. Hence the articles 8, 63, 79 and 80 of the Constitution would be violated.

The Court partially accepted the arguments of the applicants and declared unconstitutional the word “remove” from the redaction of the article, but declaring constitutional part of the challenged Article

Full text
sentencia-c-598-10.pdf