Questions remain around permits

ENVIRONMENT

TAKE a drive down the Napanapa Road and you will be amazed at the number and the scale of developments taking place in and around there.
I occasionally travel that stretch of the road to Porebada village. Every time I go past these developments I keep questing myself, how many of these developments are registered with Conservation and Environment Protection Authority (Cepa). I am not an employee of Cepa and therefore cannot enter the premises and check on their permit situation.
All development activities are regulated under the Environment Act 2000 which sets out a regulatory framework that requires all developers including state owned enterprises to apply for and obtain environment permit for their project developments. How many of them are operating without Environmental Permits?

Environmental impact/issues
Mangroves are being removed at an alarming rate, large areas of land are being strip of vegetation exposing soil to high rates of erosion and contamination of the waters, wastes are discriminately being disposed. Sea waters are being continuously contaminated with the release of physical wastes and chemicals.
In the Parliament sitting last week, Northern Governor Garry Juffa raised environment issues and responsibilities involving the Managalas Conservation Project in his provincequestioning responsibilities and the presence of Cepa. During the same session, the Opposition Leader made references to developments projects along the Napanapa Road in Port Moresby leading to the LNG project site.
There are obviously serious environmental issues that need to be addressed by the responsible government authority. We need to take stock of these issues and take appropriate action to address them.

Environment Act 2000
Environment Act 2000 is comprehensive as it is wide ranging covering all facets of environment management and enforcement regimes. All resource extraction projects and other forms of developments that result in alterations or changes to the physical and social environment are subjected to the provisions of this act. Noncompliance to the provisions of this act attracts suspensions and penalties. On the whole, the regulatory framework will enable Cepa to effectively discharge its statutory responsibilities in ensuring that activities with potential for causing environmental harm are adequately regulated in order to promote sustainable socioeconomic developments while protecting and maintaining environmental quality.
All development activities that will result in the alteration of the environment or that will change the physical, biological, chemical and social state of the environment are subjected to the provisions of this act. All activities are categorised (prescribed activities) into different classes or levels.
These are Level 1, Level 2 A or 2 B and Level 3 activities. That requires developers to obtain appropriate environment permits and approvals of any other type from Cepa before executing their projects. All forms of projects from mining, oil and gas, forestry and logging, agriculture projects, land clearing and infrastructural development, road construction, fish processing industries development or any other form of developed activity are categorised activity under the provisions of this act and developers are required to obtain appropriate environment permits and any other related approvals from Cepa.
Environmental permits
The purpose and the aims of the Environment Act 2000 and the issuing of environmental permits are to prevent pollution and damages to the ambient environmental quality by regulating development activities in order to achieve them. The Act sets out a significant step forward in the way in which the environment is to be managed and protected.
Ambient environmental quality within each segment of the environment is to be defined identifying the characteristics of the natural environment and the values that it supports. Where ambient environmental quality has been modified or altered as a result of human interference or project development, the existing status quo would be appraised before deciding, with inputs from relevant stakeholders, the level of protection that can be offered to protect certain environmental values but to forego others due to the level of impact.

Points
All project development activities from within the sovereign state boundaries of Papua New Guinea have been categorised into three levels in the Act. The Environment (Prescribed Activities) Regulation 2002 provide for the prescribing of activities to be Level 1, Level 2 (Category A or Category B) and Level 3 activities.
As prescribed activities under the act, any individual, business entities or corporate agencies including government held agencies wishing to engage in developing these activities are to apply for environment permits from Cepa. It is illegal to engage in any of these activities without an approved environment permit(s). The penalties for operating without environment permits are very high and it is wise for developers to do the right thing by obtaining appropriate approvals to avoid these penalties. The scary part of the penalties is that, they are calculated using a formula and multiplied by the number of days they operate without a permit.
No exemptions are given to any individual, government agencies and corporate entities. The requirements are applied across the board with no exceptions.
Given the relevant act providing a regulatory framework that regulates these development activities, why are these developments not being checked by the regulatory authority, Cepa? Are there follow-up compliance audits done on environment permits issued?? There is no physical inspection of development sites to enforce compliance.
Consider the oil palm industry when it comes to environmental management. The industry has a competitive environmental management system in place from plantation management, processing plants, transportation, storage, waste generation and treatment systems and finally to wastes disposal. The industry also has in compliance auditing system referred to as RSPO- Roundtable on Palm Oil which a done annually. The industry operates under an international standard and it is a required procedure to guarantee quality of their product.

Compliance and enforcement
Cepa is the regulatory agency responsible for compliance monitoring and enforcement of the provisions of the Environment Act 2000. There are two separate but related provisions that require compliance monitoring and enforcement to be done.
Compliance monitoring and enforcement is to be done in regards to exclusive provisions of the Environment Act 2000 and its related Regulations. Any provision of the act is to be enforced against any activity that results or may result in environmental degradation.
Compliance monitoring and enforcement is also required to be applied on Environmental Permits issued to the industries. The Environmental Permits issued are conditional and compliance monitoring and enforcement is to be applied for non-compliance issues.
Cepa officers are empowered or are recognised regulators enforcing the provisions of the Environment Act 2000 to enter any premises they may suspect of operating without environmental permits.
Upon entering suspected premises operating without environmental permits and if confirmed of non-compliance than appropriate provisions of the act are to be applied.
Consider the operations of Citizenship and Immigration Authority which also does compliance monitoring and enforcement under the provisions of their act. They have made a great impact on enforcing the provisions of the Immigration Act.
They enter suspected premises anytime without notifying the occupants and check on every detail information dealing with citizenship and immigration issues and they have been very effective.
The timeframes set for compliance monitoring and enforcement should not be restricted in the conditions set in the environment permit. The activities can be done at any time and especially when premises are suspected of operating without environment permits.

Other government agencies
Other government agencies that should also get involved in checking on these developments along Napanapa Road are the PNG Ports Authority, Department of Lands and Motu Koita Assembly. These line departments should form a working committee to deal with these developments as more are expected with the expansion of the city limits in that direction.