Nature as a victim before the perpetration of environmental criminal crimes

Abstract

The conception of nature as a subject of rights, is embodied in the Ecuadorian Constitution, arising from the need to protect the environment, in the face of the attacks of which it has been a victim, with the intention of guaranteeing the protection of the environment, and granting benefits to the human beings that inhabit the planet, since by suffering ecosystems are undermined, this results in serious damage to humanity. Within this conception of defense of nature and enforceability of its rights, as established by the Constitution of Ecuador, the existence of criminal sanctions cannot be ignored, based on the fact that environmental criminal protection provides protection to the different elements that make up nature, as it would be, the air, water, soil, flora and fauna. However, environmental criminal law focuses on the collective interests linked to the elements that make up the environment in order to obtain an authentic ecological justice system, focused on addressing the damage caused to the environment and the consequent generation of a number indeterminate victim of the community. Such approaches lead to the formulation of the purpose of this article, to describe nature as a victim in the face of the perpetration of environmental criminal offenses. In fact, the need to protect nature is undeniable, through the right that it possesses and in attention to the right that man has to an adequate environment, which parallels the recognition and configuration of environmental criminal sanctions, in the face of actions typified as ecological crimes.