Red Raíces: a pedagogical experience for environmental democracy from the regions of Colombia

This article aims to show the contribution of legal clinics to the challenges faced by Colombian participatory and environmental democracy after thirty years of the Political Constitution of 1991, as a practice that promotes environmental democracy. The Raíces Network is presented as an educational and innovative project of Grupo de Acciones Públicas (GAP) at Universidad del Rosario that contributes to strengthen the rights to access to justice and participation through the legal training of youth from the regions, especially from those where barriers persist to access education legal and environmental education. Based on the experience of the Network, this work concludes that the obstacles persist to consolidate the environmental democracy proposed by the Constituent Assembly, and that legal clinics with their theoretical and practical training for new generations strengthen the rights of access to information, public participation and justice in environmental matters, pillars of environmental democracy. This article was elaborated based on a qualitative methodology, with a review of doctrinal, normative and jurisprudential sources combined with the presentation of the Raíces Network.