On the morning of this Wednesday, March 30, the Minister of Environment and Sustainable Development, Carlos Eduardo Correa, landed at Paris-Charles de Gaulle International Airport, to attend the meeting organized by Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) with the 38 environment ministers of the organization's member countries.
The mission of the meeting of environmental authorities is to discuss climate challenges and the actions that their countries have been leading. The Colombian official will chair the session “Accelerate Actions to Address Biodiversity Loss” and will present the Law on Environmental Crimes, approved by the President of the Republic, Iván Duque in July 2021. According to the Ministry of Environment, this is one of the main achievements of the Colombian Government.
This law seeks to regulate environmental pollution, protect natural resources and penalize anyone who violates natural heritage. Some of the crimes incorporated in this norm, which Minister Correa will expose in France, include crimes such as: illicit exploitation, wildlife trafficking, deforestation, damage to natural resources and ecocide.
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The penalties that can be received by persons who commit some of these crimes range from fines of 167 legal minimum wages in force, to 60 months in prison. Penalties will increase by one third, when the conduct is committed in natural ecosystems that are part of the national or regional system of protected areas, in strategic ecosystems, or in territories of ethnic communities.
Last year, the Colombian authorities carried out 2,325 captures of people related to the trafficking of fauna and flora, in the proceedings 18,636 individuals of fauna and 282,147 of flora were seized. For their part, environmental experts have pointed out that January 2022 was the month of greatest deforestation in the last 10 years. A research by La Silla Vacía, points out that in the Colombian Amazon alone, deforestation in 2022 will be 300,000 hectares, equivalent to “560,620 football stadiums.”
In the 2021 law, the creation of the Directorate of Territorial Support was also established, by the Office of the Attorney General of the Nation. The main function of this unit is to “lead the research body's regional support strategy, with a view to increasing the effective presence of the Entity through interdisciplinary work in remote or hard-to-reach territories”.
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It should be noted that Colombia has not yet ratified the Escazú Agreement, a tool for access to information, public participation and access to justice in environmental matters in Latin America and the Caribbean. Less than six months before the end of the Duque Government, one of the promises to combat environmental crime has not been fulfilled.
Upon his arrival in Paris, Minister Correa participated in a symbolic activity that consented to planting a tree at the OECD headquarters. With this, international action was launched aimed at creating a global network with the 38 member countries of the organization, whose representatives will also plant a tree when they return to their nations.
Among the agenda of the public official in the European country, the meetings with the Ministers of Environment of Brazil, Chile, Belgium, Korea, Norway, and with the Minister of Ecological Transition of France, Barbara Pompili, stand out. “These bilateral meetings will serve to articulate efforts against the circular economy, the E2050 Strategy, climate action and the protection of biodiversity, among other issues,” Correa said.
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