Environmental Law Summary

What is Environmental Law?

  • Environmental law addresses the effects of human activity on the environment.
  • Implemented by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) in the Philippines.
  • Protects water and air quality, manages waste, and addresses contaminant cleanups.

What do Environmental Laws Regulate?

  • Wildlife populations through hunting and fishing regulations.
  • Chemical safety, including pesticide use.

Environmental Crime

  • Illegal acts that directly harm the environment, wildlife, biodiversity, and natural resources.
  • Includes activities breaching environmental legislation, causing harm to the environment or human health.
  • Green Collar Crime: Crime committed against nature, either illegal or morally wrong.

Common Kinds of Environmental Crimes

  • Wild Animal Traffic: Illegal business endangering biodiversity.
  • Indiscriminate Logging: Main cause of deforestation.
  • Electronic Waste Mismanagement: Illegal export of electronic waste.
  • Finning: Sharks captured for their fins, then discarded.
  • Dumping in Rivers and Aquifers: Factories dumping waste, polluting water and flora.
  • Waste Disposal: Improper disposal causing physical and airborne infections.
  • Global Warming Due To Emission of Greenhouse Gases: Gases generating heat, causing climate change.

Presidential Decree 330

  • Penalizes timber smuggling or illegal cutting of logs as qualified theft.

Republic Act No. 6969: Toxic Substances, Hazardous and Nuclear Waste Control Act of 1990

  • Regulates chemical substances, hazardous, and nuclear waste.
  • Punishable acts include:
    • Knowingly using chemical substances in violation of the Act.
    • Failure to submit reports or permit inspections.
    • Aiding in the storage or importation of hazardous and nuclear wastes.

R.A. 8550: The Philippine Fisheries Code of 1998

  • Punishable acts include:
    • Unauthorized fishing.
    • Poaching in Philippine waters.
    • Fishing through explosives or poisonous substances.
    • Use of fine mesh nets.
    • Ban on coral exploitation and exportation.
    • Ban on Muro-Ami and other destructive methods.
    • Illegal use of superlights.
    • Conversion of mangroves.

Republic Act No. 9003: Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000

  • Punishable acts include:
    • Littering and illegal dumping.
    • Open burning of solid waste.
    • Collection of non-segregated wastes.
    • Squatting in open dumps and landfills.
    • Open dumping in flood-prone areas.
    • Unauthorized removal of recyclable material.
    • Mixing of separated recyclable material with other waste.
    • Use of non-environmentally acceptable packaging.
    • Importation of products in non-environmentally acceptable packaging.
    • Construction near open dumps or landfills.
    • Construction of waste disposal facilities on aquifers or watershed areas.