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This section highlights the country policy scoping reports.
These scoping studies will further inform and assist in the development of in-depth policy effectiveness assessments, to be published in January 2021, which will focus on one or two legal tools per country. These legal tools will assist in measuring the impact of such regulatory mechanisms and promote the elaboration of sound legal recommendations.
We invite you to download the studies today to learn more.
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For many years Kenya has struggled to find the appropriate legal and policy framework to deal effectively with the plastic waste menace.
New efforts by the Government of Kenya to strengthen the regulatory framework for solid waste management now include plastic waste, and is undertaking various policy and legislative reforms to strengthen the governance framework for solid waste management.
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Mozambique has embarked on a movement to enact environmental and natural resource policies and legislation that incorporate, by adjusting them to local conditions, the international environmental principles and obligations contained in these instruments, and to establish and empower institutions to ensure implementation of the obligations arising from these instruments.
The major gap in the current legislation is that marine plastic pollution has not yet been treated as a major threat to the marine environment and no specific policy for the prevention of marine pollution has been developed.
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Plastics, including plastic wastes, are regulated directly and indirectly by a suite of environmental laws, including dedicated plastic bag regulations, and the National Environmental Management: Waste Act; among others.
South Africa has a variety of legal instruments available to address the challenge, however, they have yet to be fully utilised or are still in the process of implementation.
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Thai laws addressing plastic pollution are fragmented, involving several pieces of legislation and numbers of institutions. At the forefront of tackling plastic pollution, local administrations, with their limited authorities, are real actors that manage plastic wastes.
There are several challenges that render the management of plastic waste less effective than it should have been, including limited powers given by the constituent legislation, the lack of financial resources, and the the lack of cooperation and coordinated actions amongst relevant government departments and agencies.
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Domestic waste generation has expanded faster than the local infrastructure and management capacities. As a result of added pressure from international waste flows, Viet Nam is struggling to deal with both domestic and international plastic waste.
Although national legislation and policies and corresponding implementing institutions were put in place to control and prevent pollution of the marine environment, none of the existing laws and policies explicitly address marine plastic pollution in Viet Nam.
About the IUCN Environmental Law Centre and its role within MARPLASTICCs
The Environmental Law Programme works across different scales from global to local, and across the full spectrum of sectors concerning natural resources governance. Within the ELP is the IUCN Environmental Law Centre (ELC), which focuses on analysing the regulatory frameworks governing the different stages of the plastic life-cycle in order to address this dire situation.
