Panama’s new environmental law “grants polluters the right to contaminate and disparages the principle of environmental crime prevention,” said the Association to Promote New Development Alternatives (APRONAD). Debated by four consecutive legislatures, the law does not seek to “prevent damage to natural resources, and puts limits on the principle of the polluter pays,” said Francisco Rivas, director of APRONAD, an ecotourism promotion group.

Finally approved on Jun. 25, the law establishes penalties of six months to three years in jail and fines of up to three minimum monthly salaries (251 dollars) for degrading or contaminating natural areas and producing or warehousing toxic or dangerous substances without the proper precautionary measures.

Hunting or fishing protected species will be punished by sentences of up to 30 months in prison or fines. But Rivas complained that “These penalties are not in line with the gravity of the crime.”