Discussion concerning environmental protection often focuses on the role of government, legislation, and law enforcement. However, in its broadest sense, environmental protection may be seen to be the responsibility of all the people and not simply that of government. Decisions that impact the environment will ideally involve a broad range of stakeholders including industry, indigenous groups, environmental group and community representatives. Gradually, environmental decision-making processes are evolving to reflect this broad base of stakeholders and are becoming more collaborative in many countries.
Africa Tanzania Many constitutions acknowledge
Tanzania as having some of the greatest biodiversity of any African country. Almost 40% of the land has been established into a network of protected areas, including several national parks. The concerns for the natural environment include damage to ecosystems and loss of habitat resulting from population growth, expansion of
subsistence agriculture,
pollution,
timber extraction and significant use of timber as fuel. Environmental protection in Tanzania began during the German occupation of East Africa (1884–1919)—colonial conservation laws for the protection of game and forests were enacted, whereby restrictions were placed upon traditional indigenous activities such as hunting, firewood collecting, and cattle grazing. In 1948, Serengeti has officially established the first national park for wild cats in East Africa. Since 1983, there has been a more broad-reaching effort to manage environmental issues at a national level, through the establishment of the National Environment Management Council (NEMC) and the development of an environmental act. savana plains in northern part of Tanzania Division of the biosphere is the main government body that oversees protection. It does this through the formulation of policy, coordinating and monitoring environmental issues,
environmental planning and policy-oriented environmental research. The National Environment Management Council (NEMC) is an institution that was initiated when the National Environment Management Act was first introduced in year 1983. This council has the role to advise governments and the international community on a range of environmental issues. The NEMC the following purposes: provide technical advice; coordinate technical activities; develop enforcement guidelines and procedures; assess, monitor and evaluate activities that impact the environment; promote and assist environmental information and communication; and seek advancement of scientific knowledge. The National Environment Policy of 1997 acts as a framework for environmental decision making in Tanzania. The policy objectives are to achieve the following: • Ensure sustainable and equitable use of resources without degrading the environment or risking health or safety. • Prevent and control degradation of
land, water, vegetation and air. • Conserve and enhance natural and man-made heritage, including biological diversity of unique ecosystems. • Improve condition and productivity of degraded areas. • Raise awareness and understanding of the link between environment and development. • Promote individual and community participation. • Promote international cooperation. Environmental
pollution and ecological degradation has resulted in economic losses for China. In 2005, economic losses (mainly from air pollution) were calculated at 7.7% of China's GDP. This grew to 10.3% by 2002 and the economic loss from water pollution (6.1%) began to exceed that caused by air pollution. China has been one of the top performing countries in terms of GDP growth (9.64% in the past ten years). All these factors contribute to climate change and habitat loss. In 2022 China was ranked 160th out of 180 countries on the
Environmental Performance Index due to poor air quality and high GHG emissions. Ecological and environmental degradation in China have health related impacts; for example, if current pollution levels continue, Chinese citizens will lose 3.6 billion total life years. Another issue is that non-transmittable diseases among Chinese, which cause at least 80% of 10.3 million annual deaths, are worsened by air pollution. China has taken initiatives to increase its protection of the environment and combat environmental degradation: • China's investment in renewable energy grew 18% in 2007 to $15.6 billion, accounting for ~10% of the global investment in this area; • In 2008, spending on the environment was 1.49% of GDP, up 3.4 times from 2000; Quote from Shengxian Zhou, head of MEP (2009): "Good economic policy is good environmental policy and the nature of environmental problem is the economic structure, production form and develop model."
CCP General Secretary Xi Jinping's report at the
19th CCP National Congress in 2017 noted recent progress in ecological and environmental conservation and restoration, the importance of ecologically sustainable development and global ecological security, and the need to provide ecological goods to meet people's growing demands. Most importantly, Xi Jinping has suggested clearly identifiable methods to meet the ecological demands of the country. Some of the solutions he notes are the need for the development and facilitation of: ecological corridors, biodiversity protection networks, redlines for protecting ecosystems, market-based mechanisms for ecological compensation in addition to afforestation, greater crop rotation, recycling, waste reduction, stricter pollution standards, and greener production and technology. Reform has not come cheap for China. In 2016, it was noted that in response to pollution and oversupply, China laid off around six million workers in
state-owned enterprises and spent $23 billion to cover layoffs specifically for coal and steel companies between 2016 and 2019. While expensive, other benefits of environmental protection have been noticed beyond impacting citizens' health. For example, in the long run, environmental protection has been found to generally improve job quality of migrant workers by reducing their work intensity, while increasing social security and job quality. Different local governments in China implement different approaches to solving the issue of ecological protection, sometimes with negative consequences for the citizens. For example, a prefecture in the
Shanxi province imposed bans, and potential legal detentions or steep fines for violations, on coal-burning by villagers. Although the government provided free gas-heaters often the villagers were unable to afford to run them.
India The Constitution of India has a number of provisions demarcating the responsibility of the Central and State governments towards Environmental Protection. The state's responsibility with regard to environmental protection has been laid down under article 48-A of the constitution which stated that "The states shall endeavor to protect and improve the environment and to safeguard the forest and wildlife of the country". Environmental protection has been made a fundamental duty of every citizen of India under Article 51-A (g) of the constitution which says "It shall be the duty of every citizen of India to protect and improve the natural environment including forests, lakes, rivers, and wildlife and to have compassion for living creatures". Article 21 of the constitution is a fundamental right, which states that "No person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except according to the procedure established by law". Some of Acts for Environment protections are as follows 1) The Environment Protection Act 1986 2)Water (Prevention & Control of Pollution) Act 1974 3) The Air (Prevention & Control of Pollution) Act 1981, amended 1987 4) Noise Pollution (Regulation and Control) Rules 2000 5) Hazardous and other Wastes (Management & Transboundary Movement) Rules,2016
Middle East The Middle Eastern countries become part of the joint Islamic environmental action, which was initiated in 2002 in
Jeddah. Under the
Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, the member states join the Islamic Environment Ministers Conference in every two years, focusing on the importance of environment protection and
sustainable development. The Arab countries are also awarded the title of best environment management in the Islamic world. In August 2019, the
Sultanate of Oman won the award for 2018–19 in
Saudi Arabia, citing its project "Verifying the Age and Growth of Spotted Small Spots in the Northwest Coast of the Sea of Oman".
Russia In
Russia, environmental protection is considered an integral part of national
safety. The Federal Ministry of Natural Resources and Ecology is the authorized state body tasked with managing environmental protection. However, there are a lot of
environmental issues in Russia.
Europe European Union Environmental protection has become an important task for the institutions of the
European Community after the
Maastricht Treaty for the
European Union ratification by all of its member states. The EU is active in the field of environmental policy, issuing directives such as those on
environmental impact assessment and on
access to environmental information for citizens in the member states.
Ireland The
Environmental Protection Agency, Ireland (EPA) has a wide range of functions to protect the environment, with its primary responsibilities including: • Environmental licensing • Enforcement of environmental law • Environmental planning, education, and guidance • Monitoring, analyzing and reporting on the environment • Regulating Ireland's greenhouse gas emissions • Environmental research development • Strategic environmental assessment •
Waste management •
Radiological protection
Switzerland The environmental protection in Switzerland is mainly based on the measures to be taken against global warming. The pollution in Switzerland is mainly the pollution caused by vehicles and the litteration by tourists.
Latin America The
United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has identified 17
megadiverse countries. The list includes six Latin American countries:
Brazil,
Colombia,
Ecuador,
Mexico,
Peru and
Venezuela.
Mexico and
Brazil stand out among the rest because they have the largest area, population and number of species. These countries represent a major concern for environmental protection because they have high rates of deforestation, ecosystems loss, pollution, and population growth.
Brazil in Brazil
Brazil has the largest amount of the world's tropical forests, 4,105,401 km2 (48.1% of Brazil), concentrated in the Amazon region. Brazil is home to vast biological diversity, first among the
megadiverse countries of the world, having between 15% and 20% of the 1.5 million globally described species. The organization in charge of environment protection is the Brazilian Ministry of the Environment (in Portuguese: Ministério do Meio Ambiente, MMA). It was first created in the year 1973 with the name Special Secretariat for the Environment (Secretaria Especial de Meio Ambiente), changing names several times, and adopting the final name in the year 1999. The Ministry is responsible for addressing the following issues: • A national policy for the environment and for water resources; • A policy for the preservation, conservation and sustainable use of ecosystems, biodiversity, and forests; • Proposing strategies, mechanisms, economic and social instruments for improving environmental quality, and sustainable use of natural resources; • Policies for integrating production and the environment; • Environmental policies and programs for the Legal Amazon; • Ecological and economic territorial zoning. In 2011, protected areas of the Amazon covered 2,197,485 km2 (an area larger than Greenland), with conservation units, like national parks, accounting for just over half (50.6%) and indigenous territories representing the remaining 49.4%.
Mexico is an endemic species from the central part of Mexico. With over 200,000 different species,
Mexico is home to 10–12% of the world's biodiversity, ranking first in
reptile biodiversity and second in
mammals—one estimate indicates that over 50% of all animal and plant species live in Mexico. The history of environmental policy in Mexico started in the 1940s with the enactment of the Law of Conservation of Soil and Water (in Spanish: Ley de Conservación de Suelo y Agua). Three decades later, at the beginning of the 1970s, the Law to Prevent and Control Environmental Pollution was created (Ley para Prevenir y Controlar la Contaminación Ambiental). In the year 1972 was the first direct response from the federal government to address eminent health effects from environmental issues. It established the administrative organization of the Secretariat for the Improvement of the Environment (Subsecretaría para el Mejoramiento del Ambiente) in the Department of Health and Welfare. The Secretariat of Environment and Natural Resources (Secretaría del Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales,
SEMARNAT) is Mexico's environment ministry. The Ministry is responsible for addressing the following issues: • Promote the protection, restoration, and conservation of ecosystems, natural resources, goods, and environmental services and facilitate their use and sustainable development. • Develop and implement a national policy on natural resources • Promote environmental management within the national territory, in coordination with all levels of government and the private sector. • Evaluate and provide determination to the
environmental impact statements for development projects and prevention of ecological damage • Implement national policies on climate change and protection of the ozone layer. • Direct work and studies on national meteorological, climatological, hydrological, and geohydrological systems, and participate in international conventions on these subjects. • Regulate and monitor the conservation of waterways In November 2000 there were 127
protected areas; currently there are 174, covering an area of 25,384,818 hectares, increasing federally protected areas from 8.6% to 12.85% of its land area.
Oceania Australia in Australia is the largest barrier reef in the world. In 2008, there was 98,487,116
ha of terrestrial protected area, covering 12.8% of the land area of
Australia. The 2002 figures of 10.1% of terrestrial area and 64,615,554 ha of protected marine area were found to poorly represent about half of Australia's 85 bioregions. Environmental protection in Australia could be seen as starting with the formation of the first national park,
Royal National Park, in 1879. More progressive environmental protection had it start in the 1960s and 1970s with major international programs such as the
United Nations Conference on the Human Environment in 1972, the Environment Committee of the
OECD in 1970, and the
United Nations Environment Programme of 1972. These events laid the foundations by increasing public awareness and support for regulation. State environmental legislation was irregular and deficient until the Australian Environment Council (AEC) and Council of Nature Conservation Ministers (CONCOM) were established in 1972 and 1974, creating a forum to assist in coordinating environmental and conservation policies between states and neighbouring countries. These councils have since been replaced by the Australian and New Zealand Environment and Conservation Council (ANZECC) in 1991 and finally the Environment Protection and Heritage Council (EPHC) in 2001. At a national level, the
Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 is the primary environmental protection legislation for the Commonwealth of Australia. It concerns matters of national and international environmental significance regarding flora, fauna, ecological communities and cultural heritage. It also has jurisdiction over any activity conducted by the Commonwealth, or affecting it, that has significant environmental impact. •
National Heritage Sites •
World Heritage Sites •
Ramsar wetlands • Nationally endangered or
threatened species and ecological communities • Nuclear activities and actions •
Great Barrier Reef Marine Park • Migratory species • Commonwealth marine areas There are several Commonwealth protected lands due to partnerships with traditional native owners, such as
Kakadu National Park, extraordinary biodiversity such as
Christmas Island National Park, or managed cooperatively due to cross-state location, such as the
Australian Alps National Parks and Reserves. At a state level, the bulk of environmental protection issues are left to the responsibility of the state or territory. and one of the lowest debt to
GDP ratios of the developed economies. This could be seen as coming at the cost of the environment, with Australia being the world leader in coal exportation and species extinctions. Some have been motivated to proclaim it is Australia's responsibility to set the example of environmental reform for the rest of the world to follow.
New Zealand At a national level, the
Ministry for the Environment is responsible for environmental policy and the
Department of Conservation addresses
conservation issues. At a regional level the
regional councils administer the legislation and address regional
environmental issues.
United States in
California, one of the first protected areas in the United States Since 1970, the
United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been working to protect the environment and human health. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is an independent executive agency of the United States federal government tasked with environmental protection matters. All US states have their own state-level departments of environmental protection, which may issue regulations more stringent than the federal ones. In January 2010, EPA Administrator
Lisa P. Jackson published via the official EPA blog her "Seven Priorities for EPA's Future", which were (in the order originally listed): • Taking action on
climate change • Improving
air quality • Assuring the safety of
chemicals • Cleaning up [US] communities • Protecting America's waters • Expanding the conversation on environmentalism and working for
environmental justice • Building strong state and
tribal partnerships it is unclear whether these still represent the agency's active priorities, as Jackson departed in February 2013, and the page has not been updated in the interim. ==In literature==