Environmental Law and Policy in Kiribati: Some Conceptual Concerns and Alternatives

• Date: 01 January 2007

Environmental Law and Policy

in Kiribati: Some Conceptual

Concerns and Alternatives

’DEJO OLOWU*

Although the total volumes of waste produced may not be large compared

to other countries, the effects of the disposal of increasing amounts of waste

on fragile small islands environments are likely to be extreme and constitute

a very serious constraint to sustainable development. This is particularly

true for atolls with limited fresh water supplies and inshore lagoon marine

ecosystems that are easily contaminated.1

Introduction

Over the past decade, concerns about the environment have converged on

the concept of global change. In this context, “global change” refers to the

tendency for the rapidly expanding and economically active world

populations to alter the basic physical and biological processes of the planet

Earth. Of particular concern are artificial changes in the chemistry of the

atmosphere that cause acid deposits, depletion of the ozone layer, and

climate changes.2Beyond these concerns, however, numerous other

environmental problems demand attention, such as the spread of deserts,

water scarcity, destruction of forests, loss of biodiversity, pollution and

depletion of marine resources, and dumping of toxic wastes.

* ’Dejo Olowu LLB (Hons), LLM, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria; LLM

Human Rights & Democratisation, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa; PG

Dip International Human Rights, Åbo Akademi University, Turku, Finland; JSD Cum

Laude, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana, USA; Barrister & Solicitor

(Nigeria); Senior Lecturer, Nelson Mandela School of Law, University of Fort Hare,

East London, South Africa. The author acknowledges the research assistance of Kiata

Kabure (LLB Class of 2007), for her dedication, and to the University of the South

Pacific School of Law for supporting the study trip that resulted in this article. This

article is dedicated to the cause of effective environmental governance in Pacif‌ic Island

Countries.

1United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), UNCED

Report: Kiribati, 1992 (New York, NY: UNCED, 1992), p 56.

2Axelrod, Downie & Vig, eds, The Global Environment: Institutions, Law, and

Policy (Washington, DC: CQ Press, 2005), pp 3–5.