الرئاسة العامة للأرصاد و حماية البيئة

General Environmental Law and Rules for Implementation

28 Rajab 1422 H (15 October 2001)

Preface

God created mankind with intellectual superiority over all other creatures and assigned the Human-being as the caretaker of Earth after placing on Earth all the natural resources to needed to secure the continuation of life. The mankind has affected the surrounding natural resources and ecosystems and in turn has been affected by them.

Preservation of environment is shared by all, without any limitation or restriction. However, the Islamic perspective relative to environment and natural resources is established on the basis of damage prevention, protection and conservation, so that the life becomes a continuous state of sustainable development.

In our current era, environmental issues, including its management and protection, are attracting the attention of the whole world. This is so, because many countries in the world are facing depletion and deterioration of their natural resources’ reserves, emergence of numerous environmental pollution problems and the danger of the extinction of many wildlife species.

Being part of this world and affected by it, the Government of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, may God safeguard him, has paid a great attention to protection of the environment and development of natural resources. In its endeavor for advancement of development in various fields, the government has actively strived toward establishing a balance between the environmental considerations and pre-requisites and toward rationalizing the use of available resources. As a result, the Kingdom has become one of the distinguished active countries in the global environmental arena due to the Kingdom's inherited religious, political and economical prestige. The Kingdom has ratified many regional and international conventions in various areas, especially in the field of environment. The Kingdom, represented by the Presidency of Meteorology and Environment (PME), has played its pioneer role in protecting the environment through the development of the “General Environmental law and its Rules for Implementation”, which aims essentially toward sustaining Article (32) of the Kingdom's Constitution, "to conserve, protect and develop the environment, and guard it from pollution". The Regulation also aims toward protecting public health from all activities and acts damaging the environment, conserving and developing natural resources and conserving its use, establishing environmental planning as an integral part of national development planning in all fields, and promoting environmental awareness among all segments of the society.

This Rules for Implementation of General Environmental law aim at setting forth the procedural foundations for regulating all actions that may have impact on the environment, in addition to sustaining the national coordination for response operations, pollution control, protection of natural resources, as well as, the coordination with investment funding programs. This Rules for Implementation also defines the various types of environmental violations and correspondingly imposed penalties, geared toward protecting the health of human-being from pollution related risks and sustaining the use natural resources to serve the present needs without infringing on future generations' needs.

Finally, we call upon all to work with and assist PME in its endeavor to conserve and protect the Kingdoms' environment, to guard the national natural resources from pollution, and to prevent and cease deterioration of the available natural resources, in order to sustain protection of our generations and national economy.

May God grant success for us all

Turki Bin Nasser Bin Abdulaziz
President
Presidency of Meteorology and Environment

General Environmental Law

Rules for Implementation

Environmental Protection Standards