Biodiversity or biological diversity is elevated to a fundamental principle of the Constitution.
The promulgation of Constitutional Law Feb. 11, 2022, no. 1 amended Articles 9 and 41 of the Constitution by introducing express substantive regulations on the protection of the environment, biodiversity and ecosystems.
In particular, a final paragraph was inserted in Article 9: “Protects the environment, biodiversity and ecosystems, including in the interest of future generations. La State law regulates the ways the forms of animal protection.”
For the first time we read reference to animal protection by providing a reservation of law to regulate the ways and forms of implementation.
The legal nature of health damage: now what?
Article 41, on the other hand, included “damage to health” and “damage to the environment” in the second paragraph among the limits concerning the exercise of the freedom of private economic initiative.
Health damage, then, is the harm done to an individual’s psyche or body, related to the value of the human person in and of itself.
Biodiversity: prevention and repression
The question of who should be held accountable for environmental damage is answered by the “polluter pays” rule, but the function of this principle is not properly punitive but preventive.
In practice, it incentivizes economic operators and private entities to undertake measures to minimize the risks of harm to the environment and health to protect biodiversity.
When a regulatory framework provides that liability is strict and not subjective, that is, it is not related to the willful or negligent behavior of a physical or legal entity but to the mere causation of the harmful event, it is the usual Italian-style content.
But there is another interesting side to the matter: according to the World Economic Forum, more than 50 percent of global GDP is generated by economic activities that depend on nature and its services.
And we wonder: do the companies that declare and take action to “contribute to a nature-positive future,” really care about biodiversity, or by safeguarding nature, are they just serving their own interests?
