Bill 189.

Summary.

The bill sets the preservation, conservation and restoration of green areas, parks and natural areas in the urban environments of the Republic of Panama as its objective. Its subject matter covers these three types of space and brings together measures to preserve and conserve them and to restore those requiring intervention. The proposal concerns urban spaces and links their treatment to planning, public use and environmental conditions in those settings.

Before the competent authority, the bill establishes criteria for the restoration, use and maintenance of these spaces. The criteria are intended to enable green areas, parks and natural areas to serve a function associated with quality of life, biodiversity and environmental sustainability in urban environments. Restoration therefore appears alongside use and maintenance as part of the proposed treatment of the spaces covered by the bill. This provision connects the management of those spaces with the outcomes that the proposal seeks to promote in urban areas.

The bill provides for identifying and expanding existing public green areas in accordance with the principles of sustainable urban planning. Identification concerns public green areas already in existence, while expansion concerns increasing such areas within the urban setting. The proposal thus makes sustainable urban planning a guiding principle for both actions concerning public green space. This provision accompanies the criteria for restoration, use and maintenance established for green areas, parks and natural areas.

The text also proposes involving the private sector in the preservation and restoration of green spaces through corporate social responsibility agreements or arrangements. It further provides for equitable access to those spaces for the population. Private sector participation concerns preservation and restoration activities; the access provision concerns people who use or may use green spaces. Both measures form part of the proposal for the urban environments covered by the bill.

The bill incorporates practices and policies intended to promote the conservation of natural resources, reduce pollution and improve inhabitants’ quality of life. It assigns the Executive Branch (Órgano Ejecutivo) the task of issuing regulations through the Ministry of Environment (Ministerio de Ambiente), also identified as Mi Ambiente, and provides that the proposed law would take effect on the day following its promulgation. In Panama, the bill concerns the work of those public bodies, urban planning and the management of urban spaces, the private sector that could participate through agreements or arrangements, and the population for whom equitable access is proposed.