Summary
On June 22, 2022, Panama’s National Aeronaval Service (SENAN) passed a resolution creating an Environmental Committee charged specifically defending the Rights of Nature, as recognized in Panama’s recently adopted national Rights of Nature law (Law 287). This resolution effectively creates a Rights of Nature enforcement body within the Panamanian military.
The resolution emerged from conversations about Rights of Nature between Callie Veelenturf, founder of the Leatherback Project that protects sea turtles in Panama, and SENAN’s leadership. Callie Veelenturf had been working with SENAN since October 2019 to strengthen enforcement of laws protecting sea turtles from the illegal wildlife trade. SENAN had been providing logistic and security support for Veelenturf’s field research in the Pearl Islands, an area considered a red zone for drug trafficking. During a meeting between Veelenturf and SENAN’s Director General and other leadership to discuss future collaborations, Veelenturf highlighted SENAN’s constitutional responsibility to protect all living beings in Panama, not only human beings. After the meeting, Veelenturf received notification that SENAN’s Director General had decided to launch the Environmental Committee and asked Veelenturf to serve as the committee’s Scientific Advisor.
The resolution creating SENAN’s Environmental Committee cites Rights of Nature Law 287 and its “obligations of the State relating to [the Rights of Nature].” The resolution states that the Committee was created to “[focus] our actions on the development of a culture of conservation, improvement and defense of the rights of Nature” and to “order the creation of an Internal Policies Directive and any other instrument or documentation necessary to guarantee the implementation of environmental conservation actions, which help to establish strategies focused on institutional doctrine to guarantee the execution of projects for the protection of the rights of Nature.” One of the Committee’s objectives is to “Promote and guarantee the coordination of mechanisms and instruments that ensure the protection of the rights of Nature.”
Suggested Citation:
Kauffman, Craig, Catherine Haas, Alex Putzer, Shrishtee Bajpai, Kelsey Leonard, Elizabeth Macpherson, Pamela Martin, Alessandro Pelizzon & Linda Sheehan. Eco Jurisprudence Monitor. V2. 2025. Distributed by the Eco Jurisprudence Monitor.https://ecojurisprudence.org/initiatives/panama-resolution-creating-envionmental-committee-on-rights-of-nature/.
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