Florianópolis (Brazil) municipal court case: rights of the Conceição Lagoon

Summary

In 2021, NGO Costa Legal, UFECO, and Associação Pachamama filed a lawsuit aimed at protecting rights, including the right to an ecologically balanced environment and other assets and rights of aesthetic, historical, tourist, and landscape value. The plaintiffs claimed that repeated inertia, inefficiency, and ineffectiveness of management and ecological governance resulted in damage to the Lagoon of Conceição ecosystem, and that the Lagoon of Conceição is subject to ecological rights under the terms of art. 133 of the Organic Law of the Municipality of Florianópolis. “The unconstitutional state of affairs, characterized by organized irresponsibility in the functioning of the existing institutional structure, implemented in a fragmented and non-systemic way, has been unable to implement federal, state, and municipal legal and regulatory protection in environmental matters, being insufficient to safeguard the socio-ecological integrity of the Lagoon of Conceição,” the plaintiffs claimed. The court ordered the application of the reversal of the burden of proof as to the factual set related to the conservation of the ecosystem and the Lagoon of Conceição, the measures necessary to protect the ecosystem, and the lack of a proper gorvernance structure — keeping the precautionary principle in mind.

Involved Organizations

Related Initiatives