Minister for Environment and Climate Change Mosese Bulitavu told Parliament yesterday that Fiji’s environmental laws must be modernised to meet today’s realities of rapid development and intensifying climate impacts.
He noted that the current Environment Management Act, enacted in 2005, “was designed at a time when environmental legislation focused largely on administrative processes, without the pressures we face today.”
He said Fiji’s expanding development, urban growth, complex waste streams and increasing illegal activities now demand stronger enforcement tools.
“Over the years, it has witnessed legal disputes because of ambiguous responsibilities, strong approval processes and limited enforcement powers,” he explained.
According to Bulitavu, the Act no longer provides officers with the authority to respond quickly to pollution risks or environmental emergencies, nor does it support whole-of-government digital transformation.
“The current legislation does not provide adequate tools to deal with illegal development in a rapid manner,” he said.
He told Parliament the new bill “responds to those gaps” and offers a “comprehensive, modern and accountable framework aligned with contemporary environmental concerns, national development priorities and the rollout of the Building Permit Improvement System, or BPASS.”
“This reform brings in exactly what we have for too long debated — balancing development with conservation and reducing the red tape in our administrative processes,” Bulitavu said.
