Committee Meeting - People's Majlis of Maldives

Summary

The first item on today’s agenda was to meet with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to discuss the issue of individuals and companies not paying fines for damaging the environment. In this meeting, the team from EPA shared information on their mandated tasks, highlights of the works they have carried out so far and how they calculate fines for damaging the environment.

They also answered members’ question on the role given to the Minister of Climate Change, Environment and Energy of the environment to appeal EPA decisions, challenges in implementing decisions of EPA and necessary changes to the relevant laws and regulations.

In addition to that, the committee chair inquired about removing palm trees from islands for replantation and the team from EPA clarified the current procedure followed by EPA on this matter. After that the committee chair ended today’s meeting.