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The East African Community (EAC) is an intergovernmental regional economic community comprising six Partner States, namely the Republics of Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, South Sudan and United Republic of Tanzania. These States are endowed with diverse natural resources. They also share some resources such as water sources and wildlife. The EAC came into existence upon signing of the Treaty for the Establishment of the East African Community in 1999. This Treaty provides for cooperation of the Partner States in all walks of life including management and sustainable utilization of natural resources and the environment. The EAC has in place a Protocol on management of the environment and utilization of natural resources (the Protocol). The Protocol requires integration of the policy, legal and institutional frameworks at both regional and municipal levels. This is because the linkage between regional law and municipal laws on environ-mental management and sustainable utilization of resources is critical to the sustainable conservation of resources. Further to this directive, each Partner State has made some effort to tailor its policies, laws and institutions to comply with the objectives of the EAC. Literature on the extent to which EAC laws have been implemented in Partner States with regard to the utilization of natural resources and environmental management as directed by the Protocol is scanty and difficult to come by. This chapter analyses the adequacy of the legislative initiatives that the EAC Partner States have taken to implement the clarion call by the EAC Treaty to coordinate their joint efforts in ensuring sustainable management of environment and natural resources in the region. The analysis does not cover all the five EAC Partner States. It has purposely been confined to Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. This bias has been necessitated by a number of factors, including the historical evolution of the EAC and limitation of time and resources. Data for the study was obtained from field work in the select Partner States where interviews were conducted with key informants in Kampala, Nairobi, Dar es Salaam, Arusha and Dodoma. Respondents were asked about a wide range of issues. These included the extent to which domestic legislative and institu-tional regimes accommodate the EAC Community law in environment and natural resources management, and initiatives that have been put in place at the regional level to ensure implementation of the Protocol. They were also asked about factors they considered could impact on sustainable management and utilization of the environment and natural resources in EAC Partner States. A review of the available literature on the subject, including a critical analysis of the relevant policy, institutional and legislative frameworks was undertaken before the field workThe overall findings suggest that concerted efforts have been made by the selected EAC Partner States implementing the objectives of the Protocol. However, these initiatives have encountered diverse challenges which have been identified and discussed. Recommendations are put forward which have a bearing on opportunities for enhancing regional economic integration in general, and on how to overcome the challenges in the context of the EAC. It is hoped that the study will provide an impetus for more comprehensive studies covering the subject in all the five Partner States of the EAC. |
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