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FOREWORD

The Mekong region is experiencing rapid economic development, and this need for development invariably causes various environmental problems that cannot be tackled effectively unless legal and institutional structures are strengthened and sectoral laws effectively harmonized. Government policies and programmes aimed at protecting and improving the environment need to be translated into legislative and administrative action but in a manner that ensures such laws can be appropriately enforced in these countries. A number of states in the region have formulated Environmental Action Plans and enacted Framework Environmental Laws, such as the Kingdom of Cambodia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and most recently in Indonesian Environment Management Act 1997. Implementation however is still a problem and more effort is required to ensure environmental legislation becomes an integral part of the development process.

The Commission on Sustainable Development at its last session in May 1996, called on Governments to review their national legal and institutional arrangements for environmental management in the new context of sustainable development. To pursue this mandate, not only did UNEP further regionalise its environmental law programme with the establishment in 1996 of an Asia Pacific Environmental Law Programme at its Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (ROAP) in Bangkok, but a partnership with the MRLC was forged in the same year to deliver cost-effective and non-duplicative programmes of technical advise and co-operation in the field of Environmental Law and Policy, responding specifically to the particular needs and circumstances of countries in the Mekong region.

The first publication in this series, the Southeast Asia Handbook of Treaties and Other Legal Instrument in the Field of Environmental Law was released in August 1997 and has already been distributed widely in the region, with the grateful assistance of the UNDP offices in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. This second publication will also be distributed extensively free of charge in the region to Parliamentarians, Judicial officers, Government Officials dealing with environmental issues, Universities, Libraries, Non-Governmental Organisations and others interested in the field of environmental law. It covers constitutional provisions on environment, texts of framework laws of Cambodia, China, Thailand, and Vietnam. Also included in this publication is a list of national environmental legislation of ASEAN countries, Cambodia and China. Like the first publication, this Handbook is also available on internet through the MRLC’s homepage (http://www.mekonglawcenter.org) which it is hoped will be linked shortly to the other legal databases in the Asia Pacific region.

I wish to acknowledge the extensive assistance, material and support provided by UNEP (through Mr. Donald Kaniaru, Director, Environmental Law and Institutions Programme Activity Centre-ELI/PAC in Nairobi, and ROAP) without which this publication would not have eventuated. UNCED and the Commission on Sustainable Development at its 1997 Session, confirmed UNEP’s mandate as the principle agency in the United Nations system in the field of environmental law and it is well known that UNEP, since its inception in 1972, has been at the vanguard of the progressive development of Environmental Law both at the national and international levels with assistance to over 80 countries. It has indeed acquired a unique reservoir of legal expertise and experience, evident in this publication.

This publication is made possible with the kind help, authorization and copyright permission from the following individuals and organizations. These individuals and organizations are H.E. Mok Mareth, Minister of the Ministry of Environment of the Kingdom of Cambodia, H.E. Le Kim Chung, Dr. Houy Pholsena, Mr. Charles D. Paglee, The National Environmental Protection Agency of the People’s Republic of China, The Office of the Council of State of Thailand, The Environmental Law Center (Foundation) - Thailand, Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment of the Kingdom of Thailand, The National Political Publishing House, Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment of The Socialist Republic of Vietnam, and Asia-Pacific Centre for Environmental Law (APCEL) of Faculty of Law of National University of Singapore. I, on behalf of the MRLC, would like to express my profound and sincere appreciation for the kind help and permission.

Last, but not least, I would very much like to express my appreciation for the continued financial support of the Danish Government through DANIDA for the two publications in this Series and also for the commitment and insight provided by Dr. Suvit Yodmani, Director and Regional Representative UNEP-ROAP, the other members of the Advisory Committee, Mr. Lal Kurukulasuriya, Chief, Regional Environmental Law Programme for Asia and the Pacific and all the other assistants in UNEP and MRLC who tirelessly worked to ensure the quality and timeliness of this Handbook.

I sincerely hope that this publication will be extensively used by all those engaged in activities in the area of Environment and Development in the Mekong countries and that they will find it a useful contribution to their efforts to promote the realisation of the goals of sustainable development in their respective countries, and in the Greater Mekong Region as a whole.

Dr. Pisawat Sukonthapan
Executive Director
MRLC
29 October 1998