October 1 - Latin American environmental and legal experts unveil a Model Ecocide Law designed to provide a framework for countries across Latin America to criminalise severe environmental destruction.

At its national convention, Radikale Venstre, the Danish Social Liberal Party and a member of Denmark’s four-party coalition government, became the first Danish political party to formally adopt support for ecocide law at the national level, adopting an official resolution stating that the party will: ‘[…] work towards the international recognition of ecocide and towards criminalising ecocide under Danish criminal law’.

A package of amendments to the Croatian penal code, including a new offence of ecocide, has been formally approved by the Government and referred to the country's Parliament for consideration.

Belgium’s ecocide law has today come into force as part of the country’s new penal code (Article 94, Book II), marking the final step in a legislative process that has been several years in the making. 

The Croatian Government has announced plans, through a new Article (214a), to introduce a crime of ecocide - targeting the most severe forms of environmental destruction - into the country’s Criminal Code. 

Two of Germany's main political parties, the Left Party (Die Linke) and the Greens (Bündnis 90/Die Grünen), have called for Germany to go further than the federal government's May 2026 draft reform of environmental criminal law, which implements the EU’s revised Environmental Crime Directive (ECD), by introducing an explicit and standalone domestic crime of ecocide.

MPs and civil society representatives have called for Italy to support the recognition of ecocide as an international crime.

On Tuesday, 9 June, Argentina took a significant step towards criminalising ecocide and other serious environmental crimes when the Senate's Justice and Criminal Affairs Committee and Environment and Sustainable Development Committee approved a Bill‍ that would, if passed by the full Senate and the Chamber of Deputies, establish a dedicated chapter on environmental crimes, including ecocide, within the Argentine Penal Code for the first time.

At its 2026 party congress, Finland's Social Democratic Party (SDP) has adopted the criminalisation of ecocide as party policy.

The Santiago Declaration, signed at the Fifth Meeting of the Alliance of Environmental Law Clinics of Latin America and the Caribbean, acknowledges the progress made toward the criminalisation of ecocide and calls on states to build on this progress.

A newly released report backed by the Lebanese government documents destruction to forests, agricultural lands, marine ecosystems, water resources and atmospheric quality resulting from military activity in 2023 and 2024. The report describes the scale of harm as "ecocide" and concludes that it has "reshaped both the physical and ecological landscape" of the south of the country.

Mauritius has introduced a domestic crime of ecocide, with penalties including fines and up to 10 years’ imprisonment. The new law defines ecocide as “an unlawful or wanton act committed with knowledge that there is a substantial likelihood of severe and either widespread or long-term environmental damage.”

Calls have been made in Ghana’s Parliament for legislation to criminalise ecocide, amid growing concern over the environmental devastation caused by illegal mining, known locally as galamsey.

In a statement to Parliament, Frank Annoh-Dompreh, Member of Parliament for Nsawam-Adoagyiri and Minority Chief Whip, urged lawmakers to introduce legislation recognising ecocide as a national-level crime in Ghana, to champion ecocide law in continental fora like the African Union, and to support efforts to recognise ecocide as an international crime. His statement was supported by fellow MPs Charles Akwasi Agbeve, Dr Mahama Tiah Abdul-Kabiru, Jerry Ahmed Shaib, and Dominic Napare, who also rose to call for ecocide law.

“I rise today with a profound sense of urgency and responsibility to speak on the need for legislative action against ecocide – the mass destruction of ecosystems”, Annoh-Dompreh told parliament.

Iran’s Vice President and head of the country’s Department of Environment, Shina Ansari, has described strikes on oil storage facilities in Tehran as a “clear manifestation of ecocide”. 

In a public statement posted on social media, believed to be the first by a state official to explicitly use the term in relation to the current conflict, Ansari described the widespread explosions at fuel depots, which left Iranian capital blanketed in smoke and experiencing what has been described as “black rain”, as constituting:

“...a clear manifestation of ecocide or environmental crime.”

Lawmakers in the Philippines have proposed new legislation that would criminalise ecocide, marking a significant step toward stronger protection for the country’s ecosystems and communities.

The bill adopts language closely aligned with the 2021 definition of ecocide proposed by the Independent Expert Panel convened by the Stop Ecocide Foundation: “any unlawful or wanton act or omission committed with knowledge that there is a substantial likelihood of severe, widespread, or long-term damage to the environment.”

The Scottish Parliament has voted to advance the Ecocide (Scotland) Bill, placing Scotland on track to become the first UK nation to criminalise severe environmental destruction.

In a joint official statement, Lebanon's Ministries of Agriculture and Environment have condemned Israeli military aircraft spraying chemical substances over southern Lebanese regions as “ecocide”.

The country’s president, Joseph Aoun, condemned what he called “an environmental and health crime” and a "blatant violation” of Lebanese sovereignty.

In a far-reaching package of reforms presented to President John Dramani Mahama, Ghana’s Constitution Review Committee has proposed establishing a domestic crime of ecocide, stating:

“In order to express society’s revulsion and opprobrium to illegal mining in Ghana, the Committee will be remiss in its duty of constitutional review if it does not recommend the creation of an offence of ecocide with very stiff and punitive sanctions. This further gives true expression to the right to a clean environment.”

At the United Nations Environment Assembly, the Congo Basin Climate Commission (CBCC) signalled firm support for recognising ecocide as an international crime. In a meeting with Stop Ecocide International, Her Excellency Arlette Soudan-Nonault, Republic of the Congo Minister of the Environment, Sustainable Development and the Congo Basin and Executive Secretary of the CBCC, confirmed that the 17-nation Commission will support efforts to advance the issue within regional and continental processes.

Senator Cédric Ngindu Biduaya of the Democratic Republic of the Congo has formally lodged a bill in the national Parliament to establish ecocide as a domestic criminal offence, marking a decisive step towards strengthening legal protection for ecosystems across the country and the Congo Basin.