2.1. INTRODUCTION

Over the past few decades, environmental protection has emerged from a point of obscurity to one of the important issues of our time. Both at the international and national planes, the dominant theme of the environmental protection movement is achievement of sustainable development. It is the theme which underlies the Rio Declaration on Development and Environment, the Tanzania National Environmental Action Plan (NEAP) and the Tanzania National Conservation Strategy for Sustainable Development (NCSSD)¹.

According to the NEAP, the key policy instruments and strategies for achieving sustainable development will be environmental impact assessment, environmental legislation, economic instruments, environmental indicators and standards, and public participation. The purpose of this chapter is to define and explain the meaning and the prospects and constraints of the proposed key policy instruments. These proposed policy instruments are likely to affect businesses operating in Tanzania in the future and are therefore important for the business sector in Tanzania to understand.

1. The National Environment Management Council, the National Conservation Strategy for Sustainable Development (NCSSD), January, 1994, passim.