Legal Mechanism for Achieving Environmental Sustainability in Nigeria

Abstract

There is no gain saying that our environment has been devastated due to
man’s activities. To continue in this stead would be catastrophic hence the
law as a means of social change and social engineering would be used to
checkmate the activities of man on the environment. Laws as a body of rules
to guide the activities of man cannot be effective unless prescribed by an
authority and sanctions for its breach stipulated. The Federal Environmental
Protection Agency (FEPA) Act enacted to protect the Nigerian environment
are general laws and no specific sanctions provided for the breach of each
provision; furthermore the international laws and treaties adopted and
ratified by Nigeria have vague enforcement procedure. In this wise, this
article advocates that not only should laws be enacted to protect the three (3)
environmental media but appropriate sanctions recommended for specific
breach and an effective implementation process/strategies established to
ensure the laws enacted are adhered to, if our environment will be optimally
utilized and same preserved for posterity.