Panama Supreme Court Case: Sierra Llorona Nature Reserve

Summary

On 17 June 2024, Panama’s Supreme Court suspended the “Caribbean Corridor” highway project through the Sierra Llorona Nature Reserve, citing rights of nature violations and invoking the precautionary principle to prevent significant environmental damage.

Background
The 28 kilometer and $91 million highway project aimed to increase tourism and local commerce on the coast of Colón province. However, the highway would pass by three protected areas: the Sierra Llorona Nature Reserve, Portobelo National Park, and Chagres National Park. Environmental groups raised concerns that the proximity of the project to these ecologically sensitive zones could destroy mature secondary forests and poses a risk to biodiversity, as well as endanger the Panama Canal watershed.

In January 2024, a lawsuit was filed by Susana Serracín on behalf of the Alliance for Conservation and Development, seeking to annul the Ministry’s approval of the environmental impact study for the road. The lawsuit highlighted serious flaws in the approval process, and argued the Ministry of Environment didn’t carry out adequate studies to make sure these ecologically sensitive areas wouldn’t be harmed by construction.

The lawsuit pointed out the Ministry of Public Works (MOP) decision to divide highway construction into sections, which resulted in separate environmental impact studies and meant the highway was categorized as having only a moderate impact, and therefore had to meet less rigorous standards.

The lawsuit accused the Ministry of Environment of violating Panama’s 2023 National Rights of Nature Law 287, by neglecting the State’s “duty to ensure the application of all administrative, legal and/or technical measures…necessary to prevent and restrict the effects of human activities that may contribute to the extinction of species, the destruction of ecosystems or the permanent alteration of natural cycles and the climate.”

“We believe communities need better roads, better highways. We think that all this is a fair aspiration of all the populations that surround that area. But it’s not the right way to do things. We think that the legal framework must be respected.” – Susana Serracín (lawyer)

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