Water, air and soil pollution, global warming, deforestation, overfishing, industrial and nuclear accidents, loss of biodiversity, etc. These are just some examples of the alarming environmental crisis situation that the planet is going through. In an irrational and unconscious way, the human species has exploited natural resources and has neglected its empathy for nature, reaching a borderline situation. That is why it is required of specific laws that ensure the protection and recovery of the environment.
With the scientific and technological advance and the disproportionate growth of the species, people have tried to dominate nature breaking their balance. Given the awareness of what is caused, environmental law and ecological law are born as regulatory measures, both internally and internationally, to try to alleviate this crisis situation through the regulation and education of human behavior with nature.
Next, from Ecology Verde, we want to explain What is the difference between environmental and ecological law so that you can understand the approach and importance of both terms in today’s society.
What is environmental law
He Environmental Law It is one of the Bases of environmental sustainability. So much so, that the violation of it is an obstacle to achieving Sustainable Development Goals and of environmental sustainability in all its aspects, therefore, this regulation of the relationship between people and nature is proposed as the main purpose to preserve and protect the environment through the fight against pollution, the preservation of biodiversity and the protection of natural resources.
Regarding the Regulation of environmental lawwe can find it in all its essence in the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP)which aims to the treatment of environmental issues at both world and regional levels, acting as an environmental defender providing support to the governments of different countries for the implementation of the aforementioned environmental program, promoting the application of international environmental law.
In turn, in 2017, France began the World Environment Pact, with the aim of facilitating worldwide progress in adopting binding environmental standards, thus closing the existing gaps in international environmental law. Both the individual and society and the State must complete the policies adapted within environmental law to achieve a conservationist consciousness and a healthy human environment.
In the case of Spain, the Spanish Constitution in its article 45 establishes that:
- “Everyone has the right to enjoy an adequate environment for the development of the person, as well as the duty to keep it.”
- “The public authorities will ensure the rational use of all natural resources, in order to protect and improve the quality of life and defend and restore the environment, relying on the indispensable collective solidarity.”
This environmental competition is distributed between the State, the different autonomous communities and the municipalities. Being, therefore, the central administration (state), which will have the responsibility of legislating in environmental matters on waste, environmental impact evaluations, air pollution, etc. The different autonomous communities may increase that protection collected by the State, approving Laws and regulations on Environmental Law respecting the basic legislation made by the State.
To expand more this information, you can read this other ecology article about what is environmental law – definition, summary and regulations.
Ecological Law: What is and its characteristics
He Ecological Law It is defined as the set of legal policies and norms that regulate life in ecosystems in its entirety. They are a set of both international and internal norms aimed at the conservation of ecosystems and living beings that inhabit them. Therefore life being the legal good protected in this matter.
The 1972 Stockholm Declaration, held during the United Nations Conference on the Environment in that city, was the first document to collect the aforementioned ecological regulations, collecting in turn, the principles on which the ecological regulations that would be carried out later by the different states would be carried out, referring in these regulations to nature, natural resources, the environment and the action of people within the ecosystems in general.
Difference between Environmental and Ecological Law
While it is true that both environmental and ecological law are intimately linked, since the norms in terms of environmental defense and prevention are incardinated in the same matter, there is something basic that differs them, since while environmental law is aimed at the defense of the environment as a whole, ecological law is limited to the regulation for the defense of the ecosystems and of the beings that inhabit them, therefore, therefore they already I could say that while environmental law focuses on a more global regulation, ecological law focuses on regulation at more centralized level. Other key points of the Difference between Environmental Law and Ecological Law are:
- While ecological law focuses on the relationships that live organisms and their habitat have, in order to protect the life of ecosystems as totality as a whole and without focusing on the effects produced by environmental damage on man; Environmental law refers to the protection of the environment in relation to one of the species, the human.
- Environmental law focuses on the optimization of natural resources and environmental protection through a set of legal norms that regulate rational use, environment conservation and damage prevention. In ecological law, this environmental balance is also achieved through legal norms that regulate human activity, as well as its interaction with the different species that inhabit the ecosystem.
- Environmental law focuses on aspects of well -being and quality of human life and, therefore, develops regulations that go beyond ecological aspects. In addition, environmental is constituted by an organic set of principles that are included only in the Organic Law of the Environment, including the conservation, defense and improvement of the environment; while ecological norms are scattered in public law.
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