Senate approves bigger fines for environment breaches

The Senate has approved amendments to the Natural Resources Conservation Authority (NRCA) Act and the Wild Life Protection Act to allow for an increase in fines and related custodial sentences for offences.

Piloting the legislative measures in the Upper House last Friday, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Senator Kamina Johnson Smith, said they will ensure more effective enforcement of the environmental protection laws and act as a deterrence against breaches. She noted that over the last two decades, there has been an increase in the number of environmental offences, which have the potential to bring dangerous consequences.

"They weaken our natural defences against hurricanes, for example in respect of mangroves and coastal resources, and they compromise livelihoods, in the example of pollution and effluence. They compromise fish sources and freshwater sources in respect of our rivers and are hugely disruptive in nature," Johnson Smith said.

"The Government has been deeply concerned by these offences and so, too, have been many citizens and stakeholders," she added, noting that the existing penalties have become outdated and ineffective.

Under the amendments, a body corporate that commits an offence will be liable to a fine not exceeding $10 million. Regarding the discharge of any sewage or trade effluent or any poisonous, noxious or polluting matter, without or in nonconformity with a licence for the purpose granted by the NRCA, the penalty has moved to a fine not exceeding $5,000,000 or imprisonment not exceeding five years. For an environmental impact assessment that was not submitted within the time specified by the authority, the fines will move to $5,000,000 and a prison term not exceeding three years.

Both pieces of legislation were passed in the House of Representatives recently.