Environmental Law

Hi everyone! Welcome back to my blog! We’re only a few weeks away from the end of Semester 1 – it’s crazy how quickly time flies. 

As I mentioned in my last post, today I’ll be sharing more on the push back on environmental law as a result of COVID-19. Why? Well, if you have read my previous posts, Wildlife Conservation and AMAZON, you probably would have noticed a common theme in these posts. The rise in poaching and deforestation were both partly attributed to weakened law enforcement. Thus, my curiosity was piqued. I wanted to know exactly how COVID-19 has impacted environmental law and brought about these secondary issues. Hence, I hope to share a more in depth explanation of this impact with you guys. 

First, let’s begin with what we’ve already been exposed to – weakened law enforcement that led to increased poaching and deforestation. This weakened law enforcement is a result of 2 factors. That is, lack of funding and social distancing measures.

  1. Lack of funding: Most wildlife reserves, especially in Africa, are heavily reliant on funds generated by tourism to operate. However, as we all know, many countries are still under strict lockdowns that have caused tourist numbers to fall drastically. But these funds are needed to protect wildlife. They cover various expenses, such as park ranger wages, that are crucial to actively protect animals in these parks. Without tourism revenue, these reserves simply do not have the money and thus ability to protect the wildlife in these parks. And without good protection, it is no surprise poaching cases have risen in the midst of this pandemic.
  2.  Social distancing measures: (This seems to be a cause that is less heavily covered by the media. I found it rather clear and self explanatory, leading me to wonder why I hadn’t realised it earlier.) COVID-19 has given rise to lockdowns and various strict travel restrictions, even within countries and states. Not to mention, many other social distancing measures imposed on operations. This has made monitoring illegal logging and poaching a challenge and thus weakened law enforcement in these areas.

I then wondered how COVID-19 may have impacted environmental laws in countries where increased poaching or deforestation were not major issues. Upon some digging, I found out about the “cutting of green tape” in times of economic crisis. This is when governments remove environmental laws that may result in slower economic growth. Governments usually do this in times of economic downturn (which we are now facing globally thanks to the pandemic) as they seek quick economic recovery and growth. In fact, Australia and South Africa have already begun doing this. 

To conclude, I hope I have provided everyone with a more detailed, comprehensive understanding of how COVID-19 has resulted in weakened environmental law. Personally, learning about the cutting of green tape was particularly eye opening for me. Hope to hear your thoughts too!

4 thoughts on “Environmental Law

  1. Hi Rachel,

    You’ve really shown tremendous improvement through this assignment so far. Keep up the good work. That said, you could make sure to reply to peers’ comments promptly. There are still some pending ones on earlier posts.

    I’m curious whether there are local examples of links between the pandemic & environmental law.

    jc

    1. Hi Dr Coleman,

      Thank you for the feedback :)) Will try my best to be more active with the comments.

      I tried looking up local examples but I didn’t manage to find anything. I’ll definitely share if something comes up!

      Rachel

      1. Fair enough, Rachel – next week’s class (wk 11) might bring in some useful stuff for you (not related to my specific question though) toward the end of class.

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