Integrating Environmental Considerations into the Economic Decision-Making Process
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I. STATE OF THE ENVIRONMENT IN TONGA

[ I | I-A | I-B | I-C ]

B. Key environmental reports and priority issues

Between 1990 and 1996, several reports were prepared which focused on the environment in Tonga. The key reports are:

  • Environmental Management Plan for the Kingdom of Tonga: 1990 (Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, 1991);
  • Kingdom of Tonga: Review of Environmental Law, 1992 (Pulea, 1992);
  • The Kingdom of Tonga: Action Strategy for Managing the Environment (South Pacific Regional Environmental Programme, 1992).

Some of the main findings and conclusions of those reports are mentioned here in order to show that the broad dimensions of the environmental problems facing Tonga have been spelt out, at least for the government; there is a general agreement on the nature and extent of the problems as well as on the strategies and policies needed to resolve them.

1. Environmental Management Plan, 1990

With assistance from the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), in 1987 IDEC commenced the preparation of the first formal Environmental Management Plan (EMP) for Tonga. The EMP objectives (Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, 1991) were to:

  • Examine the existing state of the environment in Tonga and summarize all relevant existing information in a single document;
  • Determine the environmental participants in Tonga and their resource needs;
  • Identify environmental resource needs which are not being met as problems;
  • Recommend a plan of action for dealing with existing and projected environmental problems.

    The IDEC report was the only report produced, so far, on the state of the environment in Tonga. It also represents the first attempt at planning environmental management. The report was not intended to be a method of collecting new data or carrying out research; rather, it was seen as a way to assemble already available information in one document so that the environmental situation in Tonga could be assessed on an informed basis, problems identified and prioritized, and strategies formulated which would address those problems. The recommended solutions, in the form of 11 programme proposals, were clearly set out in the report. The recommendations, which covered specific environmental issues as well as those of a broader general nature, are still valid today.

    2. Action Strategy for Managing the Environment

    The South Pacific Regional Environmental Programme (SPREP) report, which was a follow up to the EMP report, was considered three years after the EMP report was completed. The SPREP report, which proposed an Action Strategy covering 11 areas together with associated programmes, identified priority issues and strategies which were similar in many aspects to those indicated in the EMP report. A total of 27 detailed programmes were included in the Action Strategy. The internal environmental programme and activities of the Environmental Planning Section of the Ministry of Lands, Survey and Natural Resources are determined to a large extent by the SPREP report.

    3. Review of Environmental Laws

    In her review of the environmental laws of Tonga, Pulea (1992) identified the principal laws related to the environment and natural resources management, and reviewed them in terms of their effectiveness in addressing the existing major environmental issues. The review drew particular attention to the fact that the environmental legal provisions were scattered throughout a range of statutes and administered independently by various ministries and departments. The review noted that one consequence was:

    "The shared environmental responsibilities depend upon a cooperative relationship, there being no legal obligations for these various departments to consult with the Environmental Planning Section, or with one another, on environmental matters. In some areas there are overlapping responsibilities such as those found relating to water. The Water Supply Master Plan Project, 1991 (PKK Consultants, 1996) is an important initiative to alleviate the overlapping responsibilities and provide a more effective system of environmental controls to protect this most important resource."

    The single most important conclusion of the review was its call for a serious attempt to bring together into a single comprehensive statute all current environmental legislation. To illustrate that conclusion and to clarify why it has been so difficult for a response to be made, some of the more obvious statutes which contain diverse matters that affect, or relate to, environmental legal policy are listed in the annex to this paper.

    The authors of the SPREP report provided similar conclusions and recommendations to those contained in the review by Pulea, as indicated by the statement (South Pacific Regional Environmental Programme, 1992):

    "The length of this list of legislation indicates the current inherent difficulty, if not impossibility, of administering environmental controls in a cohesive and coordinated way. This is seen as a major flaw, which will be overcome only when comprehensive legislation is introduced. Indeed it might prove possible (as was recently done in New Zealand where one Resources Management Act replaced 60 separate pieces of legislation) for Tonga to introduce a comprehensive Resources Act embracing land, water resources, marine resources, mineral resources, flora and fauna, forest produce, environmental management, national parks and reserves, and other aspects of environmental protection such as hazardous chemical control."

    A number of the other common environmental concerns and constraints were repeated throughout the reports, some of which are listed below.

    • Unless positive measures are now taken to ensure that environmental concerns are taken into account in the national economic decision-making processes, the future costs to the country will be considerable;
    • The need for a more effective mechanism that will ensure that decisions on implementing policies/programmes are taken after due consideration of the potential for, and the likelihood of, those policies/programmes giving rise to adverse environmental effects. Appropriate ways of mitigating those potential effects need to be formulated so that development can proceed without costly future environmental burden;
    • Despite official recognition of the importance and stated objectives of incorporating environmental concerns into national development planning, in practice the situation is often different, with related concerns being ignored;
    • Despite the existence of officially-sanctioned environmental procedures and directives, ministries and government agencies have, by and large, failed to effectively coordinate their programmes and activities covering environmental issues of national concern. The best way to resolve that constraint is to introduce appropriate and comprehensive enabling legislation;
    • The need exists for improving and strengthening institutional capacity to deal with environmental issues;
    • The need also exists for more resources to be allocated to the Environment Planning Section of the Ministry of Lands, Survey and Natural Resources, to enable it to discharge its functions and responsibilities more effectively;
    • The closely interrelated subjects of human settlements/population pressures, rapid urbanization, town planning and land allocation must be faced simultaneously and immediately.

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