Three offenses tailored to the region
The proposal seeks to make senior decision-makers criminally accountable for the gravest environmental destruction and deter harmful decisions before damage occurs. It is a legislative model for Latin America's civil-law systems, not a law already in force across the region.
Its starting point is the Independent Expert Panel's 2021 definition of ecocide: "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."
The model translates that definition into three offenses. Causing serious environmental damage that is extensive or lasting would carry a proposed prison sentence of 8 to 20 years. Conduct creating a risk of such damage would carry 3 to 8 years. A third offense, covering damage caused by serious reckless or negligent conduct, would carry 2 to 6 years.
Rodrigo Lledó Vásquez, Americas director at Stop Ecocide International, told Causa Natura Media that separating the offenses was intended to make the international definition easier to understand and apply within Latin American civil-law systems.
Liability for companies and decision-makers
Under the proposal, a company could face criminal liability for an offense committed in its name, on its behalf or for its benefit when failures in environmental monitoring, control or due diligence enabled the damage or failed to prevent it. Managers with decision-making authority could also be held personally responsible, independently of any corporate liability.
An environmental permit would not automatically shield its holder from prosecution. The text addresses permits secured through fraud or corruption, those granted in a manifestly unfair manner, and those that no longer cover the serious harm because environmental conditions have changed.
The proposal also excludes certain community activities from the definition of ecocide. Livelihood activities, customary uses of natural assets, and cultural and ancestral practices of Indigenous peoples, Afro-descendant communities and peasant communities would not constitute the offense when undertaken in exercise of their rights and under their own organizational and regulatory systems.
Environmental losses and safeguards for defenders
The initiative comes against a backdrop of extensive ecological losses. Latin America and the Caribbean have lost about 160 million hectares of forest since 1990, roughly the combined area of Peru, Uruguay and Panama. The WWF Living Planet Report 2024 recorded an average 95% decline in the region's monitored wildlife populations from 1970 to 2020, the steepest regional decline worldwide.
The risks extend to people opposing environmental destruction. According to Global Witness, Latin America accounted for 85% of documented killings of land and environmental defenders worldwide in 2025, making it the deadliest region for them. Lledó identified Mexico and Colombia as countries with among the highest numbers of defenders killed.
The model includes police custody or escorts, relocation and other procedural safeguards for environmental defenders, whistleblowers, witnesses and experts participating in ecocide proceedings. It also proposes increased penalties when they face violence, threats or reprisals because of that participation.
National bills and the international proposal
The model offers a route to national legislation while a separate effort seeks to bring ecocide within the International Criminal Court's jurisdiction. In September 2024, Vanuatu, Fiji and Samoa formally proposed amending the Rome Statute, using the 2021 definition. Their proposal would add ecocide as a fifth international atrocity crime alongside genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and the crime of aggression.
Similar legal frameworks have been adopted in the European Union. Azerbaijan and Belgium have enacted domestic ecocide laws, as has Mauritius, which did so in April 2026. Legislative efforts are also advancing in Brazil, Peru, Argentina, Mexico, Italy, India, French Polynesia, the Netherlands and Scotland.
In Argentina, two Senate committees—Justice and Criminal Affairs, and Environment and Sustainable Development—have approved a bill to establish the Penal Code's first dedicated chapter on environmental crimes, including ecocide. It still requires passage by the full Senate and the Chamber of Deputies.
In the Dominican Republic, Congresswoman Llaniris Espinal reintroduced an ecocide bill on March 17, 2026, with 39 other elected representatives as co-sponsors. The bill was first submitted in June 2025.
Brazil's Bill No. 2933/2023 would add ecocide to the Environmental Crimes Law, targeting decisions made with knowledge that they cause severe, widespread or long-term harm. It proposes prison terms of roughly 5 to 15 years, according to Climate Counsel. The Chamber of Deputies' Environment and Sustainable Development Committee approved the text on November 8, 2023; it remains before Congress.
Argentine environmental lawyer Rafael Colombo said the regional model gives states another way to incorporate ecocide into their criminal codes while the Rome Statute effort continues. Paulo Busse, a co-author of Brazil's Ecocide Bill, urged criminalization at both national and international levels. Stop Ecocide International CEO and co-founder Jojo Mehta described the model as "a practical route to protect nature and communities".
From public consultation to parliamentary outreach
Stop Ecocide International led the project 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.
Work began with a regional public consultation in June and July 2026 that drew 240 responses from citizens, academia, Indigenous peoples, civil society and experts. Online roundtables between July and September brought together 74 experts from 14 countries. More than 30 experts from 14 countries then met at Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City on September 29-30 to draft the final text.
Lledó called the process "genuinely democratic and participatory", saying it combined legal expertise with the experiences of people across the region.
Following the launch, Stop Ecocide International began sharing the model with universities and congresses across Latin America. Lledó said the next steps include meetings with parliamentarians and universities in Panama and a presentation to the Latin American Parliament, known as Parlatino.
