Eritrea – Environmental Law

The Government of Eritrea requested through the Overseas Development Administration a legal expert to support the legal proceedings for a multi-sectoral Conference on Marine Environment Protection at Massawa, Eritrea in October 1994.

MRAG Ltd provided a lawyer specialising in natural resources, to assist the preparation, planning and presentation of a number of papers on legal issues to the conference. This involved previewing and assessing all existing legal documents with respect to the marine environment, including those relating to national declarations of exclusive economic or fisheries zones, and preparing a comprehensive regulatory mechanism to address the protection of the marine environment, to be reviewed and adopted by the Conference as "Interim Law Marine Environment Protection". The topics reviewed included those covered under the headings Coastal Zone Management and Environment Regulations, International Law, Fisheries and Implementation.

Follow up work included preparation of conference proceedings, definition of future projects, and preparation and presentation of legal drafts for a range of legal instruments (national and international), including a Fisheries Proclamation and National and Foreign Fisheries Regulations, together with supporting arguments and mechanisms for their enactment or proclamation.

The draft fisheries Proclamation and National and Foreign Fisheries regulations cover all legal aspects of the activities of national and foreign fishing vessels within Eritrean waters, incorporating the findings of the Fisheries Management Assistance: Eritrea project, and explaining the effects and implications of the legislation. These documents will provide the legal framework which is essential to allow proper management of fisheries and the regulation of foreign and national fishing vessels.