Chairman, Senate Committee on Environment and Ecology, Senator Grace Bent, has said that the job of enforcing environmental protection cannot be done alone by federal protection agencies. She called for a concerted effort among the Legislative arm, the judiciary and the law enforcement agencies to effectively ensure the prevention of environmental damages, regulation of potentially harmful activities and the punishment of wilful harmful damages whenever it occurs.

Bent was speaking yesterday in Abuja at a workshop on Environmental Laws, Regulations and Conventions for Judges and Law Enforcement Officers organised by the National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA) in collaboration with National Judicial Institute and the United Nations Development programme (UNDP).

The workshop is intended to increase awareness within the Judiciary and Law Enforcement Agencies on extant environmental laws, regulations and conventions.

She said that the role of the National Assembly is to make laws for good environmental governance, adding that the enforcement and interpretation of these laws rest on the environmental enforcement agencies, most importantly, the Judiciary.

In his opening address, Minister of Environment Mr. John Odey said that for us to have a good environment we must have laws that protect the environment and these laws must be enforced.

Also speaking, the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Mohammed Bello Adoke, noted that deficiency in the knowledge of relevant skills and information in regard to environmental law is one of the principal causes that contribute to the lack of effective implementation, development and enforcement of environmental law.