Argentina Creates Environmental Branch of Federal Prosecutor’s Office
By Nicole Rentz, nicolerentz at yahoo.com

On 16 April 2007, Argentina established the Prosecution Unit for the Investigation of Environmental Issues (UFIMA), a new branch of the federal Prosecutor’s office which will focus exclusively on environmental issues.

The new unit is the result of a September agreement between General Prosecutor Esteban Righi and Environment and Sustainable Development Secretary Romina Picolotti. Most of the funding will come from the Environment Secretariat, although both offices will contribute. The branch will be headed by Federal Prosecutor Ramiro Gonzalez and headquartered in Buenos Aires , with five liaison offices across the country. It will initially have 18 officials and an annual budget of 777,600 pesos (US$249,000).

The agency was established to improve the quality of work on environmental cases. However, it will also train judges and other officials in environmental issues, conduct research, and produce a map of the most affected areas.

General prosecutor offices are often overwhelmed by violent or organized crimes, and in many cases they are not willing to devote scarce resources to environmental offenses. Specialized environmental prosecutors can ensure that environmental crimes are prosecuted. They also send a clear message that environmental laws will be enforced, and therefore may act as a deterrent to breaking them.

Specially trained environmental prosecutors and judicial officials can also help balance discrepancies in adversarial expertise. Handling environmental cases can be challenging for judges and prosecutors because there is often a lack of capacity in these areas and collecting environmental evidence can be difficult. However, corporate polluters are usually able to produce experts and attorneys with a high level of knowledge experience in the field.

In establishing specialized environmental prosecutor offices, some potential problems may need to be addressed. For example, if presentable environmental cases are not actually developed, the office may function only as another level of regulation and inspection. In such cases, the prosecutors ultimately become an administrative burden and another costly layer of bureaucracy.

Clear and enforceable environmental laws and regulations must be in place if environmental prosecutors are to be effective. With well-designed environmental laws, specially trained environmental prosecutors, like the ones Argentina has recently established, can play a very important role in protecting and sustaining a nation’s natural resources.