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CHAPTER XVIIEnvironmental Law1. IntroductionRecent years have seen an increase in our country of the regulation of activities withregard to environmental protection, which is clearly necessary in order to allow the naturalenvironment to coexist with human activity.Currently the authority entrusted with the oversight of environmental matters is theMinistry of the Environment and Natural Resources (Secretaría de Medio Ambiente yRecursos Naturales, SEMARNAT), which is responsible for establishing a national environmentalprotection policy that will reverse the trend toward ecological deterioration andset up the framework for sustainable development in the country, in coordination withvarious agencies and organizations.For the study, planning, and carrying out of its mandate, SEMARNAT has the followingsemi-independent administrative bodies, among other administrative units, and publicservants to support it in its activities: the Federal Environmental Protection EnforcementAgency (Procuraduría Federal de Protección al Ambiente, PROFEPA); the National WaterCommission (Comisión Nacional del Agua, CONAGUA); the National Ecology Institute(Instituto Nacional de Ecología, INE), and the National Commission of Protected NaturalAreas (Comisión Nacional de Áreas Naturales Protegidas, CONANP).The legal framework for environmental matters consists of a vast array of legal instruments,including codes, laws, regulations, and official standards. Some of these are:a) General Law of Ecological Balance and Environmental Protection (Ley General delEquilibrio Ecológico y Protección al Ambiente, LGEEPA). The matters covered by thislaw are further covered by several regulations:i) Regulation of the General Law of Ecological Balance and Environmental Protectionin relation to Environmental Impact (Reglamento de la Ley del EquilibrioEcológico y Protección al Ambiente en Materia de Impacto Ambiental) (referred toas the “Environmental Impact Regulation”);283