JUST IN: Call to establish environmental court

Sifelani Tsiko Agric, Environment & innovations Editor
Zimbabwe needs to establish an independent and specialised environmental court to effectively deal with the environmental litigation cases and offer better quality of sentencing to safeguard and restore the country’s environment, WWF – Zimbabwe country director, Dr Enos Shumba says.

Dr Shumba said this during a virtual meeting to mark World Wetlands Day recently.

He said the establishment of a green court will help to effectively deal with environment related crimes such as illegal developments in wetlands, deforestation and other challenges facing the country on the environmental front.

“The establishment of an independent environmental court could also give the public redress against transgressions on wetlands in particular and the environment in general,” he said.

In Zimbabwe and most other African countries, environmental courts do not exist because they are not provided for in the constitution.