Social and Cultural Protection and Environmental Justice: Lessons of the Colombian Model

Abstract

This piece, in its Spanish language version, introduced the volume "Justicia Colectiva, Medio Ambiente y democracia Participativa" (Collective Justice, Environment and Participatory Democracy), published in late 2009 by the Universidad de los Andes and Siglo de los Hombres Publishers, Bogota, as part of their "Textos Utiles Serie derecho de Interes Publico" (Key Text Series in Public Interest Law). The article abnalyzes the January 29, 2008 decision of the Colombian Constitutional Court, which issued a decision finding that the national Congress erred in drafting national forest law (Law 1021/2006) - permitting exploitation of forest and related natural resources - because it did not consult with indigenous and Afro-Colombian communities with historic ties to and dependence upon those forest resources. The decision thus stands, in international terms, as an important “environmental justice” victory, a fact contextualized and examined in this article.

Keywords: Environment, natural resources, environmental justice, Colombia, latin America