A recent ruling by Colombia’s highest court that overturns a rural development law will protect the nation’s wilderness and reaffirms an important new precedent in community rights, environmental advocates say. Responding to a series of suits brought by human rights and Indian groups, Colombia’s Constitutional Court ruled March 18 that the national government had failed to consult Indian and Afro-Colombian communities adequately before drafting the Rural Development Law of 2007. In annulling the legislation, the court not only reversed a centerpiece of the government’s rural-investment strategy. It also endorsed the principle that no rural development laws can be passed without input from Indian and Afro-Colombian communities, which own nearly half of Colombia’s 158 million acres (64 million has) of primary forest and... [Log in to read more]