Overview
- The government presented the draft Ley General del Equilibrio Ecológico y la Protección al Ambiente on Wednesday, August 26, and posted the full text for public comment on the Plataforma Integral de Gobernanza Regulatoria.
- A central change is the mandatory Evaluación Ambiental Estratégica, a strategic environmental assessment to evaluate large projects regionally and prevent developers from fragmenting works to avoid comprehensive review.
- The proposal embeds Escazú principles by expanding access to information, public participation and access to justice, and it creates a chapter with protections and compensation mechanisms for environmental defenders and local communities.
- Environmental groups and legal experts have praised the draft’s principles but warned that outcomes will depend on precise wording, clear safeguards against project fragmentation, and sufficient funding and enforcement capacity across federal and local agencies.
- If Congress accepts the initiative when the ordinary session opens on September 1, the law would update the LGEEPA framework last written in 1988 and link to recent policies such as the circular economy law and the 2026–2030 protected-areas program.