There are several ways of thinking about the environment, among which 03 (three) conceptions stand out, namely: the anthropocentric conception to defend the thesis that the protection of the environment aims to defend human life because, as the philosopher Protagoras said, "man is the measure of all things"; the ecocentric conception in which concerns with the planet and nature are predominant, whose extreme perspective understands the forest and non-human animals as depersonalized subjects of rights; the polycentric or cosmocentric conception to establish a middle ground with the prevalence of the anthropocentric or ecocentric conception in each concrete case, based on the principle of proportionality and reasonableness.
These environmental conceptions constitute the fundamental theoretical presuppositions of environmental law whose triumphant characteristic is the epistemological transversality with strong influences from different epistemic communities, such as biology, chemistry, geology and ecology itself.
One of the important aspects of environmental law is the Environmental Criminal Law (or Ecological Criminal Law). The use of criminal law for the protection of biotic and abiotic environmental heritage is increasingly frequent. In 2008, the European Union approved Directive 2008/99/EC, claiming the protection of the environment through criminal law. Climate emergencies, global warming, pollution and ocean acidity have occupied the contemporary global agenda.
That's why, in 2021, 04 (four) international events were held on the environment, namely: i. The Climate Summit (convened by Joe Biden); ii. The World Bioeconomy Forum (held in Belém do Pará); iii. COP-15 on Biodiversity (held in China); iv. COP-26 in Glasgow/Scotland (most important of the Climate Conferences).
Environmental criminal law can be seen as a multifaceted polyhedron, all of which are relevant to the criminal protection of the environment for the current and future generations.