Costa Rican Court Mandates Environmental Oversight for Agricultural Burning

The Constitutional Chamber of Costa Rica has ruled that authorities must incorporate technical criteria from the National Environmental Technical Secretariat (Setena) when authorizing agricultural burning. The decision aims to better assess potential impacts on the environment and public health.

While the court dismissed an unconstitutionality challenge filed in 2021 against existing regulations for controlled agricultural burning, it conditioned this rejection on the requirement that such norms be interpreted in harmony with constitutional and international obligations to protect health and the environment. The ruling specifies that authorizations cannot rely solely on administrative requirements or fire spread controls; instead, they must include technical evaluations to determine environmental risks.