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This paper presents the results of an empirical study that systematized environmental judicial opinions handed down by Colombia's highest administrative Court --Consejo de Estado-- over a 17-year period (1998-2015). Thanks to a research grant, the authors and a team of coders systematized, using state-of-the art content analysis methodologies, more than 250 opinions handed down by Colombia's highest administrative Court. The results presented in this paper show the most important trends of collective environmental litigation in Colombia: types of plaintiffs and defendants; type of environmental resources involved in the case; plaintiffs' success rates; most litigious regions and cities; overall effects of economic incentives on the type of litigation, among several other subjects. This paper concludes that collective environmental litigation has been instrumental to protect environmental resources in Colombia, one the most biodiverse countries in the world. Finally, the paper concludes that the elimination in 2011 of the economic incentive in favor of litigants did not favor public interest litigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, Colombian normative framework is analyzed in an integral way in relation to the exposition of the public to electromagnetic radiation issued by base stations of mobile telephones. Consequently, current legal framework was divided in seven main topics: telecommunications, the use of electromagnetic spectrum, exposition boundaries to electromagnetic fields, urban licenses, public health, environmental aspect, and the risk management. Likewise, nature and scope of precaution principles were assessed before the same. Finally, it was determined that Colombia does not have a legal precept, which assures the population's security before possible dangerous effects due to exposition to non ionizing radiations; the precaution principle, has not been employed to establish measures which assure citizens' safety in relation to radioprotection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article shows a brief study on the acceptance of the Governance concept in Colombia, as well as its use in the existing environmental policies and internal research. This article is specifically focused on the need for studying the influence of the term on the environmental administrative law from the importance other legal systems have given to it. In Europe, governance is understood as the ideal governing model for managing environmental issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using protected areas to conserve nature has, in recent decades, acquired significant importance in the international policymaking arena. Despite a solid legal base, protected areas in Colombia face various obstacles. The divergent narratives between the natural and social sciences underline these challenges: i) defining the object of conservation in terms of exclusion through positive scientific analysis; ii) the concept of the natural in opposition to the cultural; iii) an emphasis on the object of conservation that can sometimes cause the stakeholders involved to become invisible; iv) that the conservation of nature has limited legitimacy since it is perceived to be the historical product of conquest and frontier expansion; v) the emergence of conflicts between human rights and collective environmental rights, vi) the socio-environmental perspective of conservation in which the devolution of land rights to local communities and the conservation of nature are sometimes confused as a decision that benefits the larger society. Nature conservation could be pursued through the integration, at a national scale, of a protected nature which arises as a legitimate social decision, and in a multi-cultural perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Se discute la regulación colombiana respecto a la protección del medio ambiente marítimo. La explotación de los recursos naturales a través de los años ha presentado daños irreversibles en el ecosistema. Países como Colombia han empezado a iniciar programas de regulación, vigilancia y prevención de desastres, particularmente en relación con el ambiente marítimo. Se discute las sanciones en contra de violadores que contaminan el mar y, también, se analiza las consecuencias de los daños causados. El objetivo del trabajo es estudiar los fuentes doctrinales acerca de este tema y, también, intentar a entender el impacto de la contaminación ambiental.