The growing awareness of environmental degradation and its effects have revealed several
scientific, moral, social and cultural consequences, which have been also accompanied by the
development of legal theories and legislative changes. In this context, as it usually occurs when
social problems reach transcendence, the intervention of criminal law seems to be unavoidable:
in numerous countries there has been an expansion of environmental crimes. To contribute to
the discussion on the subject, this paper has a double objective. On the one hand, the safeguarded
rights protected by environmental crimes in Latin American legislations will be analysed. On
the other hand, considering that analysis, the impact of the Advisory opinion 23/17 of the Inter-
American Court of Human Rights on this matter will be presented. In order to do this, first, the
developed theories about the legal interest protected by environmental crimes will be briefly
presented. Secondly, the legal and constitutional framework of some Latin American countries
will be studied and, finally, the relevant conclusions reached by the Inter-American Court of
Human Rights in the Advisory Opinion 23/17 will be mentioned.