"Everyone has the right to a humane, healthy, and ecologically balanced living environment and the duty to defend it,” states Article 66, Paragraph 1 of the Constitution of the Portuguese Republic, the fundamental law of our legal system.
However, the legislature quickly realized that it was easier to raise public awareness of the “right to a humane, healthy, and ecologically balanced living environment” than to instill the “duty to defend it.”
Thus, in fulfilling its essential and constitutionally enshrined duties of protecting nature and the environment, preserving natural resources, and ensuring proper land management, the State was soon compelled to sanction behaviors harmful to the environment due to the clear insufficiency of merely having a constitutionally established duty.
To this end, the legislature defined criminal offenses and administrative infractions, applying penalties that can reach up to twelve years of imprisonment and fines up to five million euros—significant figures given the typical Portuguese penalty framework and the financial capacity of individuals and companies in Portugal.
These classifications cover crimes such as Forest Fires, Damage to Nature, Violations of Urban Planning Rules, Pollution, Hazardous Environmental Activities, Common Danger Pollution, and Threats to Animals or Plants, among others. They also include administrative infractions, such as conducting noisy activities under certain circumstances, violating extraordinary phytosanitary protection measures essential for controlling pinewood nematodes, failing to separate and dispose of household waste, and breaches of waste management rules, among others.
But is this enough? Have environmental crimes and infractions decreased? Is there a satisfactory social response?
The latest report from the Public Prosecutor's Office indicates that between 2022 and 2023, environmental crimes increased by 26.5%, which may suggest an increase in inspections and, consequently, the detection of such offenses, or that these behaviors have become more frequent.
And what are the consequences of this increase?
Sanctioning Law, in general, is reactive and shaped by social pressure. Recently, as we have all seen in the media, environmental protection protests—both legitimate and illegitimate—have intensified, increasing pressure on the penal/administrative sanctioning system and demanding swift and effective responses. This could lead to the introduction of new legal crime categories or infractions and the tightening of existing penalties. Let's wait and see...
