Law 217 on the Environment and Natural Resources, as amended by Law 647 (old text - 1996)

Law 217 on the Environment and Natural Resources (Consolidated text - 2023)

Law passed

New consolidated text 

The General Law on the Environment and Natural Resources aims to establish rules for the conservation, protection, improvement, and restoration of the environment and its natural resources, ensuring their rational and sustainable use in accordance with the Constitution of Nicaragua. As specific objectives, this law includes:
<ol>
<li>Preventing, regulating, and controlling activities that cause environmental degradation and ecosystem contamination.</li>
<li>Promoting the rational exploitation of natural resources through national planning based on sustainable development, equity, social justice, and respect for the cultural diversity of the country and rights of autonomous regions and municipal governments.</li>
<li>Proper use of physical space through territorial planning that prioritizes environmental protection and natural resources as the foundation for human activities.</li>
<li>Strengthening the National System of Protected Areas to ensure biodiversity and other resources.</li>
<li>Ensuring the rational use and management of watersheds and water systems for sustainability.</li>
<li>Promoting environmental education to foster a society in harmony with nature.</li>
<li>Creating a healthy environment to contribute to public health and disease prevention.</li>
<li>Promoting activities and programs that support the development and enforcement of the law.</li>
<li>Other objectives outlined within the law.</li>
</ol>

Law 217 on the Environment and Natural Resources (2023)

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An aim to achieve a quantifiable outcome within a given time-frame, set by an institution such as a national government.

Policy instruments are techniques or tools used by governing authorities to promote certain policies in order to achieve predetermined goals. Put simply, instruments are how a government tries to achieve its goals, with this taxonomy being focused on national policy instruments.

Risk is the potential for adverse consequences resulting from the dynamic interplay between (climate-related) hazards, exposure, and vulnerability of affected human or ecological systems.

Groups  of people who are adversely affected by climate change or the response to it

A set of principles, processes, and practices that build economic and political power to shift from an extractive economy to a regenerative economy.

Renewable energy means all forms of energy produced from renewable sources in a sustainable manner.

Fossil fuel is a generic term for non-renewable energy sources such as coal, fossil gas, and oil (including crude oil, and petroleum products), that can be used for electricity and heat generation. Fossil fuels are hydrocarbons formed from pressurised and heated organic material buried over millions of years.

Molecules in the atmosphere that play a key role in the greenhouse effect by trapping heat radiating from Earth’s surface.

Area of the economy in which actors engage in identical or related activities.

In human systems, the process of adjustment to actual or expected climate change and its effects, in order to moderate harm, increase resilience or exploit beneficial opportunities. In natural systems, the process of adjustment to actual climate change and its effects; human intervention may facilitate adjustment to expected climate change and its effects.

The management and allocation of funds, assets and investments to meet various objectives

This sector involves the wholesale and retail selling of goods.

Any compulsory, unrequited payment to the government levied on corporations or individuals. This can be for environmental reasons, such as introducing a Carbon tax to set a price that emitters must pay for the greenhouse gases they emit.

Actions or measures to adapt terrestrial systems to climate change.

A ban is a legal action that prevents the sale or supply of a product or service, or that recalls a product from the market. Examples are bans on SF6, greenwashing, fossil fuel advertisement or single-use plastics.

Activities involving the catching, processing, and selling of fish for food, recreation, and industry.

Activities of businesses and institutions that provide financial services and products to individuals and organisations.

Activities that provide lodging, food, and entertainment services to guests, including hotels, restaurants, and resorts.

Actions and measures to adapt and increase resilience of societies and the economy to climate change.

Oil is a combustible liquid fossil fuel composed mainly of hydrocarbons, occurring as crude oil and refined into petroleum products such as petrol, diesel and kerosene.

Heat extracted from the ground, usually in the form of hot water or steam and typically referred to as hydrothermal fluid.

Any substance with chemical properties that can cause physical harm to people or damage the environment, including ammonia, carbon monoxide, phosphine, chlorine, arsenic, cadmium, mercury, pesticides, dioxins, microplastics, benzene, asbestos, aflatoxins, fluoride, methanol, and toxins from marine sources.

Activities that involve the cultivation of crops and raising of livestock for food, fibre, and other products essential for human life and industry.

Coal is a combustible sedimentary rock formed from carbonised plant matter, rich in carbon and hydrocarbons, and occurring in several main types including hard coal and brown coal.

Either money or something of monetary value is transferred between two or more organisations, people or countries.

Activities that involve planning, designing and building infrastructure, residential, and commercial structures.

Conditions that enhance the feasibility of adaptation options. Enabling conditions include finance, technological innovation, strengthening policy instruments, institutional capacity, multi-level governance and changes in human behaviour and lifestyles.

Zoning and spatial planning are both methods for guiding the distribution of people and activities in a space, and are regulatory restriction.

Social inclusion is the process of improving the terms on which individuals and groups take part in society—improving the ability, opportunity, and dignity of those disadvantaged on the basis of their identity.

Extreme weather refers to events where a weather variable exceeds (or falls below) a threshold. Meaning it is significantly different from the average or usual weather pattern.

This sector involves activities to move goods and people, alongside the storage of products.

Fossil gas, commonly known as natural gas, is a fossil fuel consisting chiefly of methane with smaller amounts of other hydrocarbons and trace gases, found in underground deposits.

Law 217 on the Environment and Natural Resources, as amended by Law 647 (old text - 1996)

Policy instrument

Risk

Impacted group

Just transition

Renewable energy

Fossil fuel

Greenhouse gas

Economic sector

Adaptation/resilience

Finance