Spanish
The Peruvian Constitutional Tribunal is asked to review the constitutionality of a municipal ordinance creating a municipal protected area around the Quilish hills and the micro-basins of the rivers Quilish, Porcon and Grande.
The plaintiff is a group of mining companies that are challenging this new municipal protected area. They claim that the constitution does not give the municipalities competence to create new protected areas, even at the local level. Therefore, the municipal ordinance should be considered to be unconstitutional and be rescinded.
The court stated that if the constitution considers that natural resources belongs to the nation it also provides that local government such as municipality are granted with a political, administrative and economic autonomy. Furthermore, article 78 of the supreme decree No. 38-200-AG allows local governments to create protected areas on the bases of their land use planning competences. Consequently, the constitutional court considered the municipal decree to be in line with the constitution and dismissed the claims of the mining companies.