Environment Act 1998 (Solomon Islands)

The Environment Act provides for the protection and conservation of the environment in Solomon Islands. The Act establishes the Environment and Conservation Division whose functions include the protection, restoration and enhancement of the quality of the environment, having regard to the need to promote sustainable development, develop, establish and administer systems of prevention and control of pollution, develop national standards to promote sustainable development and to monitor those standards through environmental auditing, assist in developing legislation for systems of environmental planning at national, provincial and local level, and the development of national, provincial and local environmental plans, promote the participation of the community in environmental decision-making, among others. In the exercise of its functions, particularly for promoting sustainable development, the Division is mandated to be guided by the precautionary principle, intergenerational equity, conservation of biological diversity and ecological integrity, and improved valuation of environmental resources. The Director of the Division is directed to submit a report on the state of major natural resources, among others, every three years to the Minister who shall cause the report to be laid out before the National Parliament. The Act also provides for the requirement of an environmental impact statement of public environmental report for proposed developments in Solomon Islands.