Law No.8 of 2008 Environmental Protection and Improvement in Iraqi Kurdistan Region.

This Law, consisting of 48 articles divided in V Sections, aims at protecting and preserving the environment, particularly considering the problems of urban expansion and population increase and lack of awareness among the population. Main objectives of the Law are: maintaining the environment of the region, protecting, improving and preventing it from pollution; protecting the environment and public health from dangerous activities and harmful works; maintaining and developing the natural resources and rationing their utilization; making the environmental policy a part of general development planning; raising the level of environmental awareness, and establishing individual and community responsibility to environmental protection.
To achieve these objectives an Environmental Protection and Improvement Fund in the Region together with an Environmental Protection and Improvement Council in the Region will be established, related to the Ministry of Environment in Kurdistan region. Members of the Council are the representative of Ministries and the boards related to environment and will be also part of it a representative of the local environmental organizations. Main tasks of the Council are: follow up the execution of decisions issued by their Ministries and prepare reports about it; suggest the general policy for environmental protection in the region; evaluate the standards in accordance with the specifications of the environmental components; assess and control the conditions that must be present in the projects and activities that have harmful effects on the environment or its balance; harmonize the emergency plans prepared by the related agencies to face the environmental disasters; and assess the environmental impact resulting from the use of international prohibited weapons in the region.
In every regional governorate, will be established a Council of Environmental Protection and Improvement in the Governorate with the task of monitoring the environmental policy at the local level.
The Law states also that the owner of any project or establishment must encompass the processes of self-monitoring in coordination with related agencies. The Ministry will create as well Environmental Observation Teams, allowed to enter the establishments, with the duty of controlling the environmental crimes against the provisions of this Law.
Rules of protection and improvement of the environment are provided by this Law, banning possible pollutants, radioactive, hazardous and harmful substances, in the following fields: water (surface, ground, and drinking water), air (including noise level), soil, biodiversity, recycling of the wastes and dangerous substances, pesticides and chemical compounds. An entire article is dedicated to facing the environmental disasters to establish and organize the work, before, during, and after the disaster, of the different agencies involved.
The V Sections of this Law are: General Definitions, Objectives and Principles (I); Regulation of Environmental Protection and Improvement (II); Rules of Protection and Improvement of the Environment (III); Penalties (IV); and Final Provisions (V).