Environmental Policy: Protection and Regulation

Environmental policy is primarily concerned with how to govern the relationship between humans and the natural environment in a mutually beneficial manner. Traditionally, it has been defined in terms of the problems it addressed, such as controlling pollution and waste flows and limiting habitat loss. However, policy makers have begun to appreciate that environmental policy will only be genuinely successful when it is sensitively integrated with other sectors and policy areas. Politically speaking, ‘environmental policy integration’ represents a new but potentially difficult stage in the continuing metamorphosis of environmental policy into a much wider policy supporting sustainable human development.