1996 ACT 299

(July 26)

Official Journal No. 42,845 of July 30, 1996

For which the Colombian flora is protected, the botanical gardens are regulated and other provisions are dictated.

COLOMBIA CONGRESS

DECRETA

ARTICLE 1o. COLOMBIAN FLORA. Conservation, protection, propagation, research, knowledge and the sustainable use of Colombian flora resources are strategic for the country and are a priority within environmental policy.

They are of public interest and social benefit and will have priority in the allocation of resources in the development plans and programs and in the general budget of the nation and in the budgets of the territorial entities and the corporations. regional autonomous regions.

ARTICLE 2o. BOTANIC GARDENS. The botanical gardens, as collections of scientifically organized living plants, constituted under this law, will be able to handle herbal and germplasm in gene banks or in seed banks; they must implement permanent basic and applied research, in situ and ex situ conservation and education programmes; they shall use for their activities non-polluting technologies and shall adopt the following primary purposes for the Meeting your social objectives:

a) Maintain both essential ecological processes, and systems that support different manifestations of life;

b) Preserving genetic diversity;

c) To contribute effectively and permanently through its research and dissemination work to regional and national development, and

d) Contribute to the use of flora and natural ecosystem species in such a way as to permit their use and enjoyment not only for the present but also for future generations of inhabitants of the territory in the concept of sustainable development.

PARAGRAFO. The in situ conservation refers to the site where the species is native and the former site to which it is made out of the site from where the species is native.

ARTICLE 3o. STATE PARTICIPATION. In accordance with Article 103 of the Political Constitution, the State, at the municipal, departmental and national levels, shall contribute to the creation of an organization, promotion and strengthening of the founded and structured botanic gardens as state entities, in all their modalities, or as private non-profit associations.

The government will regulate the form of state participation in the plans, programs and projects of public interest that it will bring forward.

ARTICLE 4. OPERATING LICENSE. To be entitled to the benefits, stimuli and prerogatives referred to in this Law, the botanical gardens will require a permit issued by the environmental authority, prior to the Institute of Research Biological Resources "Alexander Von Humboldt".

Additionally, they must obtain the corresponding operating license, by the corresponding entity, in accordance with the regulations issued by the National Government. In any case, for the granting of the operating license, the respective entity must request the prior concept of the National Network of Botanical Gardens of Colombia.

Once the legal status has been granted, the botanic gardens will have an unextended period of six months to submit to the authority which granted it, a copy of the administrative act granting the operating licence, automatic cancellation of your personal.

The validity of the operating license for the botanical gardens shall be a requirement sine qua non for the approval of statutory reforms or for the registration of directors or dignitaries of such entities.

TRANSIENT PARAGRAPH. The botanic gardens currently in operation will have a term of six months, counted from the date of the regulatory decree referred to in the first paragraph of this article, to match the objectives and activities of the entity to what is established in this Law.

ARTICLE 5o. THE NATIONAL NETWORK OF BOTANICAL GARDENS. The National Botanic Gardens Network of Colombia will be integrated by the legally recognized botanic gardens and will function as an advisory board and as a government advisory body.

ARTICLE 6o. PARTICIPATION IN THE NATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEM. The legally constituted botanical gardens are part of the National Environmental System, SINA.

ARTICLE 7o. NATIONAL PLAN OF BOTANICAL GARDENS. The Ministry of the Environment, its research institutes attached or linked and the Regional Autonomous Corporations, in the year following the entry into force of this Law, With the National Botanic Gardens Network and with the official or private entities that handle genetic banks, they will formulate a National Plan of Botanical Gardens and germplasm banks.

The plan will be submitted to an evaluation and adjustment process every two years, at least, and in it will indicate the resources of the public treasury that will be assigned to public establishments for the execution of their activities and the responsible for carrying them out and will be submitted, through the Ministry of the Environment, to the consideration of the respective national planning authorities, in accordance with the provisions of the article 8o., 13 , and following Act 152 of 1994.

The plan should include research priorities, in situ conservation, ex situ conservation and spread of promising botanical species for regional and national development, native and exotic species of exceptional scientific value. The European Commission has also proposed that the Commission should be able to take the necessary measures to ensure that the aid is implemented.

ARTICLE 8o. NATIONAL BOTANY INFORMATION SYSTEM. There will be a National Botany Information System, which will work under the responsibility of the "Alexander Von Humboldt" Biological Resources Research Institute and in which the registry will be of the collections of living plants of the botanical gardens and the banks of germplasm, and of dried plants of the herbariums that operate in Colombia.

These entities will provide this Institute with the information of its floristic inventories.

The National Botanical Information System will be part of the Environmental Information System.

ARTICLE 9o. COLLABORATION AT THE CITES CONVENTION. The botanic gardens will participate as government advisory entities for the proper implementation of the Cites convention, through the provision of documentation and cooperation with the Colombian authorities. in charge of the handling of the convention, especially in the reception of the confiscated or confiscated live botanical material and in the propagation of specimens of the threatened species of premature extinction.

The botanic gardens will advise the competent authorities of the State regarding the development and implementation of other international conventions and instruments on the conservation of Colombian biota.

ARTICLE 10. SURVEILLANCE FOR THE EXPORT AND IMPORT OF BIOLOGICAL MATERIAL. The airport, customs, environmental, health, police, and the Attorney General's Office for Environmental Affairs and the Office of the Prosecutor General of the Nation will not allow the entry or exit of the country of non-authorised live plant or animal material, in order to prevent the export or import of endangered or endangered species and to apply, in accordance with their legal competence, the penalties for those responsible.

The penalties will be, in accordance with the rules in force, from the imposition of fines to the arrest, in accordance with the seriousness of the infringement. In any case the confiscation of the material will be made.

The text of the first two points of this article should be placed in notices or posters visible in the sea, air and land ports of the country from which the exit or the entry of biological material is carried out.

ARTICLE 11. BOTANY EXPEDITION. To support the process of scientific research of the Colombian flora and the publication of its results, establish the Botany expedition on a permanent basis throughout the national territory.

ARTICLE 12. SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY. For all the legal effects, especially those of a tax and contractual nature with the state entities, it is established that the activities, plans, programs and projects that fulfill the botanical gardens constituted subject to the provisions of this Law, they have the character of science and technology activities.

ARTICLE 13. SPECIAL PROGRAMS. The botanic gardens will establish special programs for urban arborization, afforestation and reforestation of river basins, for which, prior contracting will lend to the state entities advisory as consultants in these areas or provide, when they have nurseries, the plant material necessary for these purposes.

ARTICLE 14. TAX EXEMPTION. The municipal councils, as provided for in their respective agreements, may exempt up to 100% of the property tax, from land owned by the botanical gardens or intended for such purposes, provided that when such entities or their owners develop environmental conservation activities subject to the provisions of this law and to the regulation issued by the National Government for that purpose.

Likewise, those lands of private property that are reduced that conserve natural vegetation and that have a unitary extension of not less than five (5) hectares, or that have formulated and/or have formulated and/or have formulated and/or they are implementing a management plan duly approved by the respective environmental authority, or have established a specific on-site or ex situ conservation project with a legally established botanical garden.

The exemption will only operate for the land dedicated to the conservation plans, for which the respective castrals will be realized.

ARTICLE 15. INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION. The Ministry of the Environment and the International Technical Cooperation Division of the National Administrative Department of Planning will have to include within the package of projects that they submit each year to the consideration of foreign governments and international organizations, at least one project related to the conservation of native flora or to environmental preservation activities that advance or plan to advance the gardens Botanicals, constituted according to the law.

ARTICLE 16. HERBARIOS. The activities that the Colombian National Herbal-Museum of Natural History of the Institute of Natural Sciences of the National University of Colombia, the herbarium of the Research Institute of Biological Resources "Alexander Von Humboldt" and the other official herbalists as well as the members of the Colombian Association of Herbarians are in the public interest.

The territorial entities, within the scope of their autonomy, will ensure that these scientific bodies have the human, material and financial resources necessary to carry out the inventory of the national flora.

ARTICLE 17. FIELD OF APPLICATION AND VALIDITY. The provisions of this Law shall also apply, as appropriate, to arboetuses.

This Law governs from its promulgation and repeals the provisions that are contrary to it.

The President of the honorable Senate of the Republic,

JULIO CESAR GUERRA.

The Secretary of the Honourable Senate of the Republic,

PEDRO PUMAREJO VEGA.

The President of the honorable House of Representatives,

RODRIGO RIVERA SALAZAR.

The Secretary of the Honourable House,

DIEGO VIVAS TAFUR.

COLOMBIA-NATIONAL GOVERNMENT

Publish and execute.

Dada en Santa Fe de Bogota, D.C., a 26 de july de 1996.

ERNESTO SAMPER PIZANO.

The Minister of Finance and Public Credit,

JOSE ANTONIO OCAMPO GAVIRIA.

The Minister of the Environment,

JOSE VICENTE MOGOLLON VELEZ