CHAPTER ONE

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to the Study

   Cameroon has a large number of laws and regulations on the environment and sustainable development. However, these texts have not always been easily accessible, both for the community of users and actors of their implementations including the jurisdictional actors. This state of affair compromises the achievement of the objectives assigned by the ministry of environment, protection of nature and sustainable development (MINEPDED) declined through the following priority axes: Integrating the principles of sustainable development into national policy making, sustainable management of natural resource,the fight against pollution and nuisances(2018)

   Compared to many western nations and like much of Africa, environmental governance is a recent practice in Cameroon. Sectoral legislations have been adopted to regulate different aspects of the environment in a piecemeal fashion. It was not until the 1992 UN conference on environmental and development, which emphasized the need to apply a holistic approach to environmental management, that the Law N° 94/01 of 20 January 1994 to lay down wildlife and fishery regulations and the Law N° 96 of 5^th August 1996 relating to environmental management (framework law) were adopted. The framework law outlines the general legal framework for environmental management in Cameroon. (MINEPDED)

   The city of Bamenda is blessed with natural resources but subject to environmental degradation. Typical example of environmental degradation are; soil erosion, flooding, and pollution. These problems are mostly caused by humans through the stress they exert on the environment. Therefore, there are laws or legal and institutional framework guiding and governing urban environmental protection. Natural environmental hazards now occur right at our door steps and the frequency of occurrence and magnitude of damage that the cause is seen to be on an increase especially in poor urban communities. The natural environment is deteriorating at the rate faster than the rate at which natural occurring processes and resources available within the environment can replenish. If left unabated  landslides, flooding, sporadic fire outbreaks, collapse of major road axes, houses and bridges have the potential of plunging urban centres’ into anenvironmental chaos in the city of Bamenda(Nyambod, 2010). These environmental problems has to be mitigated using laws guiding against them.

  Today, urban areas occupy only five percent of the earth’s terrestrial surface but they are home to almost half of the global population, who consume seventy-five percent of the world’s natural resources and generate equivalent proportion of pollution and waste. Urbanisation involves conversion of natural and semi-natural surface cover into impervious surfaces. Thus unless manage properly it often leads to serious ecological and environmental degradation such as air, reduced green spaces, increased land fragmentation, decreased air and water quality, loss of fertile agricultural land and alteration of natural drainage(Kantakumar, Kumar, Scheneider, 2016). Bamenda like other cities of the world, experience these problems and issues of urban growth and expansion propelled by rapid increase in population. By the increasing population density and demand for urban environment, strong city planning will be essential in managing these and other difficulties as the urban area swell. These issues has had significant negative impacts on the urban environment and as such laws have been put in place to curb these problems such as Law N° 96/12 of August 1996 relating to Environmental management. Despite these laws put in place these environmental problems are still on the rise, this could be due to the fact that while provisions on the right to access to information and public participation exist in Cameroon’s legal framework, in practice people do not have access to relevant environmental information and are not given the chance to fully participate in environmental decision making processes. In this light, Cameroon’s legal framework and instruments appears inadequate and ineffective and falls short of ensuring and enhancing environmental governance when analysed through a right based lens (Ashukem, 2019).

 Legal and Institutional frameworks are a set of formal organisational structures, rules and informal norms for service provision. The legal policy and institutional framework are formed of various interlinked components. A policy needs and institutional environment for its formulation and implementation. The legislation provides the regulatory and fiscal instruments needed to achieve the policy objective.

Parimala, Gnana, SoundariArockiam, JeyaSundar, Zengqiang Zhang in Micro-Organisms for Sustainable Environment and Health, define Legal and institutional framework that; it is a broad concept and it concerns the functions of governments, political jurisdictions, judicial systems, legislative bodies and regulatory agency(sustainable resource recovery and zero waste management). More specifically the legal framework incorporates laws, amendments, treaties, acts, ordinance mandates, regulation and their enforcement mechanisms. The institutional system refers to the structure of government and its agencies independent thinktanks and private sectors services. The legal framework regarding the environment is the agenda by which the government balances the welfare of people and economic growth by controlling the humans and their anthropogenic activities with regards to environmental concerns

According to definitions of environment provided by the Environmental Acts (Germany, Canada,China, Philippines and South Africa), UPFG is part of the environment and therefore falls under the environmental act. For example, the definition of “environment (which is the surroundings within which humans exist and that are made up of;  the land, water and atmosphere of the earth, micro-organisms, plants and animal life, any part or combination of and the interrelationships among and between them, and the physical, chemical, aesthetic and cultural properties and conditions of the foregoing that influence human health and well-being) in the National Environment Management Act of South Africa applies to UPFG by mentioning land, plants and any part or combination of them, as well as the interrelation among and between them.

According to the definition of “environment”, the Environmental Protection Law of China refers specifically to the total body of all natural elements and artificially transformed natural elements in urban areas. Of special importance are the laws that delegate powers, giving the possibility to legislative bodies at a lower level to make regulations on special environmental issues. In the preamble or list of objectives of environmental acts, governments commit to promoting or providing the basics for the protection of the environment by different means, such as the establishment of standards or environmental quality guidelines or codes of practice. By doing so, they are also committed to promoting UPFG as part of the environment. Summarizing UPFG under the definition of “environment” has further consequences, as all laws that are related to the “environment”, such as the Municipal Demarcation Act 1998 of South Africa, address the issue of UPFG as well. For example, this Act states that by determining a municipal boundary the objective must be to establish an area that would enable the municipality to fulfil its constitutional obligations, including the promotion of a safe and healthy environment. Also, in determining a municipal boundary, the environmental characteristics of the area need to be taken into account. Again, the environment is addressed and, as part of it, UPFG as well. (Knuth, 2015)

 Environmental protection is any activity to maintain or restore the quality of the environmental media through preventing the emission of pollutants or reducing the presence of polluting substances in environmental media. It may consist of this study seeks to show and explain legal and institutional framework and how it governs the environment from environmental disorders caused by urbanisation to ensure urban environmental protection.

1.1.2 Activities of the RD-MINEPDED                                                 

The main activities of the RD-MINEPDED include amongst others:

• The promotion of school environmental clubs by making them take part in workshops and seminars concerning biodiversity conservation and environmental protection and indulgencing nursery practices as well as tree planting activities.
• The delegation carries out sensitization programs on the conservation of biodiversity to ensure steady supply of resource and environmental protection, thus taking active part in international day celebrations like world environment day, world day to combat desertification, world biodiversity day, world day for the protection of the ozone layer etc.
• Sensitize, encourage and promote the use of renewable energies such as biogas and bio fuel.                                                                                         
• Ensure city beautification through the green city program which is the planting of trees at various areas in town, an activity known as urban forestry. This activity aims at reducing the amount of carbon compounds released to the atmosphere.
• The delegation carries out inspections and controls of council waste management programs or projects, points of solid waste disposal for conformity with environmental norms for example on hygiene and sanitation (sewage management, disposal, treatment, availability of toilet facilities etc)
• Carries out joint inspections and controls in collaborations with MINMIDT in classified establishments to ascertain the respect of environmental norms e.g. on hygiene and sanitation (sewage management, disposal, treatment, availability of toilet facilities etc.
• To sensitize the public on the harmful effects of persistent organic pollutants and environmental hazards.
• Make sure Environmental and Social Impact Assessment is done for new establishments and Environmental Audits for existing plants.The two main service directly related to this study are;

1.1.3   Chief of Brigade for Environmental Inspections and Controls

This department is headed by an officer on oath who has the status of the Judicial Police Officer and is assisted by one regional controller; they carry out the following functions:                    

• Follow up the application of norms, directives and environmental standards;
• Diffusion of norms and legislation;
• Environmental inspections and controls;
• Control and the surveillance of trans border pollution;
• Control the respect of environmental norms in the matter of sanitation;
• Follow up the application of national and international legislation in force relative to the environment;
• Participation in the elaboration of inspection guides.

1.1.4 Chief of Service for Sustainable Development  

This Service Head is in charge of:

~ Follow up of public consultations and hearings;

~ Proposing sustainable development measures and actions specific with local realities;

~ Follow up the implementation of programs and projects on sustainable development in the region;

~ Participation in the conception and planning of projects and programs of activities concurrent with sustainable development in liaison with other concerned administrations;

~ Participation in the realization process of environmental evaluations (Impact Assessment and Audits);

~ Participation in the elaboration of major regional schemes.

1.2 Statement of research problem

  The city of Bamenda has seen the progressive deterioration in its environmental quality as are result of rapid and unplanned urbanisation that took off since the early 80s. there has thus been an upward surge in the frequency of occurrence of natural hazards within the environment which if left unabated have the potential of plunging Bamenda into and abys of environmental chaos. Landslide, flooding sporadic fire outbreak, collapse of major road axis, houses and bridges are thus on an increase. (Nyambod, 2010)

There is thus a rising need for the government to provide concrete solutions to these environmental problems by laying down laws or legal and institutional instruments governing urban environmental management in the city of Bamenda. Urbanisation is on upserge in all major towns and it has come with challenging issues which either deplete or ameliorate the urban landscape. Urban environmental protection in Bamenda is a cause for concern as fragile ecological systems are threatened with direct or indirect impact on the Bamenda inhabitants. The perceptions of urban environmental protection vary from one stakeholder to the other. This perception however is based on the know-how of these stakeholders with respect to the legal and institutional framework in force.

During this work or study, we shall identify the various stakeholders and evaluate their perception on the environmental framework and how to curb urban environmental disorders.

1.3 Research question

1.3.1 Main research question

-What are the perceptions of the various stakeholders on the legal and institutional framework governing urban environmental protection in the city of Bamenda?

1.3.2 Specific research question

1. What are the laws or legal and institutional framework governing urban environmental protection in the city of Bamenda?
2. Who are the stakeholders or those involved on the legal institutional instruments governing urban environmental protection in the city of Bamenda?
3. What are the challenges faced by stakeholders in understanding legal and institutional instruments governing urban environmental protection and how can it be solved?

1.4 Research objectives

14.1 Main research objective

-To investigate the perceptions of the different stakeholders on the legal and institutional framework governing urban environmental protection and how the help in influencing decisions on urban environmental protection.

1.4.2 Specific research objectives

1. Assess the level of understanding and awareness of the legal and institutional framework governing urban environmental protection by different stakeholders
2. To analyse the adequacy of existing policy, legal and institutional framework governing urban environmental protection.
3. To investigate and find out the challenges faced in understanding legal and institutional instruments governing urban environmental protection and to show how these challenges can be resolved