New deadline to regularize environmental instruments in Guatemala
On January 3, 2020, the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources decreed a 3-year extension to the term for regularization of environmental instruments in Guatemala. Thus, existing projects have until December 16, 2022 to request their respective environmental license.
The environmental instrument is a technical document that establishes the environmental impacts or risks and the actions that will be carried out to mitigate those damages; said instrument is approved by means of an environmental license. The obligation to have an environmental instrument exists since 1986 according to article 8 of the Law for the Protection and Improvement of the Environment (Decree 68-86). However, the national interest in complying with environmental legal provisions has recently increased, following the global trend of concern for the preservation of the environment and the fight against climate change.
In 2016, the Environmental Control and Monitoring Regulation -RECSA-, Government Agreement 137-2016, was issued, setting a two-year term for companies to regularize themselves by presenting their environmental instrument. It is important to clarify that the fact of being regularized by presenting an environmental instrument does not exempt the interested party from being subject to the imposition of a fine of Q. 5,000.00. for having started operations without presenting its environmental instrument. However, despite the fact that such a fine is legally established, the Ministry of the Environment is not currently imposing such a sanction.
Due to the large number of interested parties who decided to regularize their situation in terms of environmental regulations, on December 24, 2019, the reform to RECSA was published in the Diario de Centro América and established two important modifications:
- A term of 3 more years ( expiring on December 16, 2022 ) was set for the process of regularization of environmental instruments, with the imposition of a fine of Q. 5,000.00 regardless of the category of the project.
- The obligation to present a bond or better known as surety insurance, which was a requirement for obtaining an environmental license, was eliminated.
- In the first place, the opportunity of the new fixed term;
- Secondly, the fact that it is no longer necessary to hire a surety bond or insurance, which implied an additional cost for the companies and
- Third, but not least, it is a mechanism to identify the environmental damage that occurs and seek to mitigate it.