Top experts from 14 Latin American countries launch legal framework to prevent ‘ecocide’
MEXICO CITY, 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.
Similar frameworks have already been adopted in the EU and in national jurisdictions from Azerbaijan to Mauritius, and could meaningfully strengthen existing laws to better protect the exceptional biodiversity of the region, where regulations are currently failing to prevent destruction of forest ecosystems and massive decline of wildlife populations.
Since 1990, Latin America and the Caribbean have lost approximately 160 million hectares of forest — an area equivalent to the combined size of Peru, Uruguay and Panama. The region has also experienced the world’s steepest decline in monitored wildlife populations: an average 95% decline between 1970 and 2020. Latin America is also the world’s deadliest region for land and environmental defenders, accounting for 85% of documented killings worldwide in 2025.
Ecocide law establishes a criminal threshold for the gravest forms of environmental destruction, creating personal criminal liability for senior decision-makers responsible for severe and widespread or long-term environmental harm. The aim is not only to prosecute such harm, but to deter destructive decisions before the damage occurs.
The Model Ecocide Law for Latin America builds on the 2021 definition of ecocide developed by an Independent Expert Panel, which defines ecocide as “unlawful or wanton acts committed with knowledge that there is a substantial likelihood of severe and either widespread or long-term damage to the environment being caused by those acts.”
In September 2024, using the 2021 definition, Vanuatu, Fiji and Samoa submitted a formal proposal to amend the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court to make ecocide a fifth international atrocity crime, alongside genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and the crime of aggression.
Domestic ecocide laws have also been adopted in Azerbaijan, Belgium and, most recently, Mauritius in April 2026, while legislation is progressing in countries including Brazil, Peru, Argentina, Mexico, Italy, India, French Polynesia, the Netherlands and Scotland.
The new Model Law was developed through a public consultation, followed by online working sessions with 74 experts from 14 countries in the region, culminating in a two-day drafting conference in Mexico City involving more than 30 legal experts. Designed for Latin America’s civil law systems, the resulting text is designed to be easily adopted or adapted by national parliaments.
The project was led by Stop Ecocide International in collaboration with the Association of Researchers in Environmental and Climate Criminal Law (AIDPAC), the Mexican Center for Environmental Law (CEMDA), Universidad Iberoamericana, the Transdisciplinary Center for Sustainability (CENTRUS) and the Alliance of Environmental Law Clinics of Latin America and the Caribbean.
Rodrigo Lledó Vásquez, Americas Director at Stop Ecocide International, said:
“From the beginning, this has been a genuinely democratic and participatory process. We began with a regional public consultation, followed by working sessions with 74 experts from 14 countries in Latin America, culminating in two days of intensive drafting by more than 30 legal experts in Mexico City. The result is a Model Law shaped by both legal expertise and the realities and experiences of people across the region.”
Jojo Mehta, CEO and Co-founder of Stop Ecocide International, said:
“Ecocide law is taking hold across the globe at remarkable speed. From a formal proposal before the International Criminal Court to legislative progress across Europe and growing political momentum in Africa, governments are increasingly looking to criminal law to address the most severe forms of environmental destruction. “This new Model Law provides lawmakers in Latin America with a practical route to protect nature and communities by deterring the decisions that cause the gravest environmental harm before the damage is done.”
Gustavo Alanís, Director of the Mexican Center for Environmental Law (CEMDA), said:
“Latin America contains some of the richest ecosystems on Earth, and millions of people depend directly on their health. Ecocide law draws a clear legal line around the most severe forms of environmental destruction, recognising that there is a level of harm to nature and communities that should never be accepted as a cost of doing business.”
Dr Jorge Peláez Padilla, Lecturer in the Department of Law and Co-ordinator of the ‘Berta Cáceres’ Legal Clinic for Environmental Justice at Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City, said:
“Across Latin America, environmental defenders and communities too often face personal and collective risks when opposing severe environmental destruction. Ecocide law places responsibility for the most serious environmental harm where it belongs: with the state and, ultimately, with the decision-makers responsible for causing that harm.”
Rafael Colombo, environmental lawyer and member of the Argentine Association of Environmental Lawyers, said:
“While efforts continue to have ecocide added to the international crimes under the Rome Statute, the Model Law opens up new avenues for Latin American states to incorporate ecocide as a criminal offence into their national legal codes. This opens the door to a new approach to criminal justice capable of investigating public and private companies and corporations, placing limits on the habitual impunity and evasion of justice surrounding crimes involving powerful actors and networks of power.”
Paulo Busse, criminal and environmental lawyer and co-author of Brazil’s Ecocide Bill, said:
“Ecocide has always occurred throughout the world and represents a growing existential risk to humanity. It is therefore urgent that it be established as a crime, both nationally and internationally.”
You can read the full Model Ecocide Law for Latin America here.