National Environment Policy.

The main purpose of National Environment Policy (or NEP) is to guide decisions taken to manage environmental issues that arise in the country at national as well as sub-national levels. It takes an anticipatory and forward-looking approach towards addressing environmental challenges faced by Sri Lanka while serving as the sentry that would safeguard the natural resources of the country. It places the environment in the centre of the sustainable development of the country, identifying the vision, mission, goals and objectives of the NEP in line with broad national agenda towards sustainable development, albeit not restricting only to SDGs. Hence, the other policies that contribute directly or indirectly to the broader goals of sustainable development in the country are expected to accord with the broader guidelines stipulated by the NEP. Furthermore, NEP ensures that all sectoral policies comply with the international conventions, for which the Government of Sri Lanka is a party. The NEP has been prepared through a consultative process. This process included stakeholder consultations covering ‘Policy Thematic Areas’ (PTAs) of land and water resources; biodiversity and ecosystems; coastal and marine resources; environment pollution prevention control and waste management; climate change and global environmental challenges; built environment and green development; and cross-cutting issues and challenges shared by all PTAs. The draft policy has undergone further validation including a round of public comments before submitting for the approval of the Cabinet of Ministers. PTAs were selected to cover all environment sectors, as elaborated in the National Environmental Act. No. 47 of 1980 and its amendments which describe the environment as ‘the physical factors of the surroundings of human beings including the land, soil, water, atmosphere, climate, sound, odours, tastes and the biological factors of animal and plants of every description.
Vision is: Safeguarding the Environment while ensuring ecological sustainability for the Present and the Future. Mission is to: Ensure sustainable use, management and protection of environmental resources to create enabling conditions for sustainable development in Sri Lanka through a well-defined policy framework. Goals-the policy goals of the NEP are key aspirational statements that will lead Sri Lanka to achieve the above vision and mission. These goals form the basis of the policy objectives of the NEP. The overall objective of the NEP is to provide guidance and direction for the sustainable management of environmental resources in the country so that the goals of the policy can be achieved in a timebound manner. This overall objective is to be attained through realizing the following specific objectives: -To identify effective nature-based and technological solutions and sustainable practices that can overcome environmental issues observed in atmosphere, land, water, coastal and marine eco systems in the country and promote adoption of such solutions and practices by the public, private sector, community and civil society stakeholders; -To encourage prevention of all forms of environmental pollution while ensuring the restoration of contaminated and degraded sites due to pollution; To create incentives for investing on sustainable practices in agriculture, industry and services for win-win economic, environmental and social outcomes; -To strengthen the implementation of the existing legal and regulatory framework to safeguard critical environmental assets and ecosystem services; -To introduce new legal instruments to fill the gaps in the existing laws and regulations wherever they are found to be ineffective and/or inadequate; -To promote the use of market-based instruments to address pollution and degradation of environmental resources and ecosystem services to the extent possible along with regulatory and participatory means to enhance the transparency and overall effectiveness of policy solutions; -To build institutional capacity of public organizations with mandates deal with environmental issues and strengthen the institutional coordination among them; -To mobilize necessary resources for the implementation of interventions identified in the NEP and any plans developed based on proposed policies; -To increase the awareness of the public including youth and school children on environmental issues and environmentally friendly products through formal, informal and non-formal education programmes, awareness campaigns in media and training programmes; -To ensure the participation of the community in the preparation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of environmental policies, plans, programmes and projects; -To create awareness among investors and the public on the objectives and direction of the policy, i.e. NEP, with respect to investment projects at any stage of development conceived, proposed or in the pipeline; -To recognize and promote the use of proven and relevant traditional knowledge and practices where applicable to enhance the environmental management in all areas to the maximum extent possible; -To create new partnerships and strengthen the existing ones for mobilization of resources to face global environmental challenges, especially for adapting to climate change impacts and mitigating GHG emissions; -To adopt innovative approaches such as payments for ecosystem services, polluter pays, extended producer responsibility, nature-based solutions to balance development and conservation needs; -To create a multi-stakeholder mechanism to fulfill national commitments to international covenants and MEAs. Policy statements are presented under seven Policy Thematic Areas (PTA),namely; Land and Water Resources; Biodiversity and Ecosystems; Coastal and Marine Resources; Environment Pollution Prevention, Control and Waste Management; Climate Change and Global Environmental Challenges; Built Environment and Green Development; Cross-Cutting Issues and Challenges. The policy statements identified under each PTA are further categorized under several sub-sections. The policy statements that are being presented and covered by technical solutions, incentives-positive and/or negative-to create enabling environment for those solutions as well as institutional mechanisms for implementation of the same.