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{
    "id": 530594,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/530594/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 34,
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    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Environmental Action Plan should not be legitimate, in my view. At the moment, according to the amendment Bill, the county assemblies role will be limited to consideration and adoption. The County Environmental Action Plans will be shared with the Cabinet Secretary for incorporation in to the National Environmental Action Plan. That is why counties have two years to prepare and then the national Government has three years. One year will be for collating the county plans and, the other, is for plans for incorporating and alignment with the national plan, so as to have a seamless and synchronized national policy on environmental management and conservation. Section 53 of the principal Act is amended to require the putting in place for the protection and the enhancement of indigenous knowledge, in the conservation of environment and natural resources and also measures for protection of indigenous knowledge, or by diversity and genetic resources of communities. Mr. Speaker, Sir, what this section is trying to say, is to add the protection of indigenous knowledge in the environmental management and conservation which has not been the case before. There are so many communities across this country which possess formidable amount of natural resource, environmental protection and management knowledge. They know how to preserve forest and know how to coexist with animals. For example, the Maasai Community coexists with animals as they graze their cows. But for a long time, they have used traditional indigenous methods and knowledge to exist with animals with very minimal conflict between wildlife and human beings. What this Bill is trying to do is to make it lawful for Government to incorporate traditional indigenous knowledge in the conservation of natural resources and the environment. Section 54 is amended to require the precautionary principle in the issue of pollution. Let me explain briefly what the new Clause 54 is trying to do. It says that other than requiring the person who causes environmental degradation to pay for their pollution, the standard is enhanced so that even a person who has not actually caused actual pollution, but their activities portend a grave or imminent danger of polluting the environment, can also be held accountable. Mr. Speaker, Sir, in environmental law, it is called the precautionary principle. In environmental matters, you do not wait until environmental damage has been caused or there is discharge of toxic materials and people are dying or they are in hospital and then you start asking the polluter to pay. If there is evidence that what somebody is about to do, whether a natural or juristic person is about to do has the propensity to cause environmental harm and either public health or plant life can be harmed, that person should be restrained from doing so before the actual harm happens, or they should be made to mitigate the effects of the potential harm, so that you do not wait until it happens. This precautionary principle is what Clause 54 envisaged. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I have a few more comments before I end my remarks. Clause 56A, which is a new provision brings in the issue of climate change and empowers NEMA to make regulations on climate change as one of the emerging issues. In the environmental protection under the existing Environmental Management Co-ordination Act of the year 1999, the issue of climate change and the need for guidelines on climate change were left out and this Bill tries to correct that gap. There is a new Clause 58(10) The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}