LAW
1. To what extent have the principles of environmental law been incorporated in the Environmental Protection Act 2000
20TH MARCH, 2004.
Introduction
The environment is made up of the physical, biological and human elements. These three are different facets of one and the same environment. Not only in recent years, the human environment has begun to impinge and burden the physical and biological environment. It is only in recent years that the public has been made aware of the seriousness of the matter. This awareness, has, not only led to changes in local legislation, but also to changes in the way the problem is approached. It is useless trying to solve environmental problems on a national basis as the environment is a global matter and should be dealt with internationally and therefore globally with all the countries aiming at one goal, a better environment for not only today’s generations but also for future generations.
The worldwide trend nowadays is towards sustainable development. That is, using the environment for present needs without compromising the rights of future generations, to a clean environment. This can only be done by insuring that future generations have the same access and availability to the environment as we do now. To ensure this access to the environment there must be some sort of planning. The sort of planning required is that to preserve the same quality and biodiversity we find today. The future generations have a right to the same diversity that we have at our disposal at present. The environment that they are born into must not be impoverished or tainted in any way. For environmental law to be possible and effective there must be an integrated approach. There must be the integration of socio-economic policies and environmental policies. Only this sort of integrated policy will be a success in the environmental field. An integrated approach seems extremely simple on paper, however it has proved to