Cap. 435 Art. 2Interpretation. person to protect the environment.

In this Act unless the context otherwise requires: ''Authority'' means the competent authority nominated by the Minister under article 6; ''biological diversity'' or ''biodiversity'' means the variability among living organisms from all sources, including inter alia, terrestrial, marine and other aquatic ecosystems and the ecological complexes of which they are part, and includes diversity within species, between species and of ecosystems; ''conservation'' means a series of measures required to maintain or restore the natural habitats and the population of species of wild fauna and flora at a favourable status;

''derivatives'' means parts of any specimen, whether processed by man or not;

''discharge'' includes emission, deposit, dumping, disposal, addition or introduction into the environment of a substance or energy, directly or indirectly from any point source or diffuse source, whether stationary or mobile, and whether caused or permitted intentionally or otherwise and whether continuous or intermittent or once only; ''energy'' includes all types of radiation forming part of the electromagnetic energy spectrum, or resulting from a nuclear source, as well as all vibrations and noise; ''environment'' means the whole of the elements and conditions, natural or man made, existing on earth, whether together or in isolation, and in particular:

(a) the air, water and land;

(b) all the layers of the atmosphere;

(c) all organic and inorganic matter and all living organisms;

(d) all ecosystems; and

(e) the landscape; akaryotes, prokaryotes and eukaryotes, dead or alive, in whole or in part and their derivatives;

''genetically modified organism'' means any of the following:

(a) an organism derived from the formation of a combination of genetic material by any means other than natural means;

(b) an organism inheriting such combination of genetic material;

(c) an organism that results from the replication of an organism as derived in paragraph (a); or

(d) such other organism as may be prescribed by the Minister under this Act;

''Minister'' means the Minister responsible for the environment; ''natural resources'' means any component of nature and includes air, water, land, soils, minerals, energy, living organisms and genetic resources;

''pollution'' means the direct or indirect introduction by man into the environment of substances, organism, genetic material or energy that cause or are likely to cause hazard to human health, harm to living resources or to ecosystems, or damage to amenities, or interfere with other legitimate uses of the environment;

''prescribed'' means prescribed by the Minister under this Act; ''precautionary principle'' means the principle whereby appropriate measures are taken to protect the environment and to ensure sustainable management of natural resources in the absence of absolute or conclusive scientific proof of the need for such measures; ''specimen'' means any species, whether alive or dead, any part or derivative thereof, and includes any goods which from an accompanying document, the packaging, mark or label or from other circumstances appear to be parts or derivatives of animals or plants; ''substances'' means any matter, chemical, mixture, compound or product and including fuels, combinations of elements, mixtures or compounds of a chemical reaction, as well as the mixture of substances of different molecular identities; ''waste'' means any thing, substance or object which the holder discards or intends to discard, or is required to keep in order to discard, and includes such other thing, substance or object as the Minister may prescribe.