HOW IS THE PROTECTION OF THE ENVIRONMENT GUARANTEED?

There is currently in our country a established awareness about the care and protection of the environment, consequence of a change in culture and environmental education that has grown exponentially in recent years, what has motivated the implementation of instruments designed to guarantee adequate protection of the natural environment and, in your case, correct threatening behaviors of the same.

→ WORLDWIDE

Globally, it is worth highlighting the Protocolo de Kyoto, which has become one of the most important international legal instruments for the protection of the environment, more concretely, for their fight against climate change.

It contains the commitments assumed by the industrialized countries to reduce their emissions of some greenhouse gases, responsible for global warming. Although it has received criticism from environmental associations and countries whose economy is based on the natural environment, al many of the agreements reached not being put into practice.

→ AT THE EUROPEAN LEVEL

At European level, undoubtedly stands out directive 2008/99, 19 of November, on the protection of the environment through criminal law, in which, Article 3, carries out a breakdown of the actions classified as punishable with respect to the environment, stating that “Member States shall ensure that the following conduct constitutes an offense, when they are illicit and committed maliciously or, at least, for gross recklessness”, fixing a list of crimes, later included in the Spanish Penal Code.

“Member States shall ensure that the following conduct constitutes a crime, when they are illicit and committed maliciously or, at least, for serious recklessness "

 

→ IN SPAIN

Statewide, in Spain the article should be mentioned 45 from Constitution Spanish, which recognizes constitutional rank to “…right to enjoy an environment suitable for the development of the person, as well as the duty to preserve it”, entrusting the public powers to ensure by "… rational use of all natural resources, in order to protect and improve the quality of life and defend and restore the environment ... ", and establishing the maximum level of legal protection to the same, through the establishment of “… criminal penalties The, in your case, administrative, as well as the obligation to repair the damage caused ".

“… Rational use of all natural resources, in order to protect and improve the quality of life and defend and restore the environment ... "

So, and developing the constitutional provisions, the defense of the environment was introduced in a more or less novel way, as a common legal asset worthy of state protection, through the regulation contained in Title XVI of the Penal Code, under the title "Of the relative crimes to spatial planning and urban planning, and the protection of historical heritage and environment”.

→ WHAT IS CONSIDERED ENVIRONMENTAL CRIME?

• The Article 325 of the Penal Code regulates the basic type of environmental crime establishing as punishable conduct all kinds of emission, spill, radiation, extraction, etc., that can seriously impair the balance of natural systems. Anticipating:

– A prison term of between two and five years.

– A fine of between eight to twenty-four months.

– Special disability for the profession or trade.

• The qualified type of these crimes is established in the Article 326, which occurs in those cases in which they concur in addition to the previously referenced behaviors, other series of circumstances established in the article (industry underground, creation of irreversible or catastrophic risk, etc.), imposing the penalty higher in degree, without prejudice to those that may correspond in accordance with other provisions of the Penal Code.
• Completing this regulation, the responsibility of companies for conducts against the environment was introduced (b>Article 328) as well as the crime of environmental trespass (Article 329), which punishes the conduct of the authority or public official that favors the granting of manifestly illegal licenses that authorize the operation of polluting industries or activities.

→ WHAT HAPPENS WITH FLORA, FAUNA AND DOMESTIC ANIMALS?

On the other hand, the Penal Code grants protection to flora, wildlife and domestic animals, through the regulation contained in the articles 332 a 340, and that also establishes prison sentences for those who:

• Cause damage to flora (talando, cutting up, burning, ripping off, illegally collecting or trafficking in any species of protected flora or destroying their habitat).
• Introduce species of flora or fauna that damage the ecological balance.
• Hunt or fish endangered species.

Without prejudice to it, The Penal Code also contains prison sentences in cases of forest fires, that undoubtedly affect the environment, being classified in a different title to crimes specifically referred to the environment, by containing in Title XVII (Of crimes against collective security) a chapter (Chapter II) which is titled From the fires.

All these measures help us to improve the environment, However, what is important is the contribution of each and every one of us

And you, What do you do for the environment?