National Environmental Policy (2018)
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National Environmental Policy (2018)
The goal of this NEP is to improve and maintain a high level of environmental quality for current and future generations while ensuring that the health, interests and development of the people of Trinidad and Tobago are not compromised.
Priority 3: Improving the local environment
2.13. Planning and Human Settlements
a) Take urgent action, as appropriate, to address and monitor unplanned, unregulated, and illegal settlement of state lands, particularly in areas of high environmental sensitivity, historical or cultural significance;
b) Empower government entities with the responsibility for planning and development to effectively implement their mandate through the provision of additional financial, technical and institutional capacity-building; c) Ensure meaningful participation of private sector, non-governmental entities and the public in planning and development of human settlements;
d) Revise, as appropriate, and enforce guidelines on land use and human settlement as to minimise the impact of economic activity on human health and comfort;
e) Review and amend, as appropriate, legislation to promote sustainable human settlement planning;
f) Ensure that all planned human settlements are designed to:
Incorporate ‘green spaces’, with particular emphasis on areas of high hydrological significance;
Include community spaces that encourage healthy lifestyles;
Minimise the fragmentation of forests and enhance the connectivity of parks, forests and green spaces; and
Withstand and alleviate the impacts of natural disasters and climate change.
g) Ensure that all planned human settlements, as far as practicably possible, are not
Placed on hillsides, within flood plains, or other areas highly vulnerable to natural disaster;
Placed within environmentally sensitive areas where development may threaten environmentally sensitive or endangered species;
Placed within hydrological significant areas where development may threaten the quality or quantity of critical water supplies;
Placed on land determined to be best suited for agricultural production.
2.14. Green architecture and infrastructure
2.17. Mass transit solutions