means accredited for the purposes of this Act in accordance with the prescribed procedures;

, in respect of a development proposal, means a ministry, department, statutory authority, local authority or person authorised under a written law to approve the proposal;

means the optimum population of all forms of life that a habitat or land area can support indefinitely;

means the chairperson of the National Council;

means the person mentioned under section 18;

means the area within 30 metres inland from the high water mark and includes areas from the high water mark up to the fringing reef or if there is no fringing reef within a reasonable distance from the high water mark;

means—

• (a)a person (including Government) who engages in—
  • (i)providing services; or
  • (ii)manufacturing, production, processing, transportation, storage and packaging, mining, quarrying, sand extraction, coral mining, tourism, commerce, the preparation or processing of any agricultural produce or food or any other activity undertaken for financial gain,

including any such services or activity conducted at or in residential premises;

• (b)the place, land or premises on, at or from which the activities mentioned in paragraph (a) are carried on;

means any debt incurred by a facility on conservation of nature initiatives, that includes compensation to land and resource owners for giving away the right of use of a piece of land and the natural resources for conservation purposes;

means the department responsible for environment;

means any activity or undertaking likely to alter the physical nature of the land in any way, and includes the construction of buildings or works, the deposit of wastes or other material from outfalls, vessels or by other means, the removal of sand, coral, shells, natural vegetation, sea grass or other substances, dredging, filling, land reclamation, mining or drilling for minerals, but does not include fishing;

means a proposal for a development activity or undertaking submitted to an approving authority for approval under any written law;

means the head of the Department;

means the Environment Impact Assessment Administrator mentioned in section 12;

means actions that must be performed immediately, without time for normal planning, design or review, in order to protect against catastrophic loss of property or life, or serious harm to the environment;

means—

• (a)air, land or water;
• (b)all layers of the atmosphere;
• (c)all organic or inorganic matter or living organisms; or
• (d)the interacting natural or human system that include components referred to in paragraphs (a) to (c);

means an audit conducted under section 22;

or EIA means the environment impact assessment of a development proposal approved in accordance with Part 4;

or EIA processmeans the environment impact assessment process undertaken in accordance with Part 4;

means a committee established under section 16;

means a unit established under section 15;

means the Environmental Register established under section 17;

means the Environmental Tribunal established by section 56;

means a commercial or industrial facility;

means the shore of the sea, channels or creeks, that is alternately covered and uncovered by the sea at the highest or lowest tides;

means the Environmental Trust Fund established by section 55;

means a substance which, due to its nature, condition and quantity is toxic and capable of posing an immediate or long term risk to human health or the environment;

means toxic, inflammable, corrosive, reactive, infective or explosive waste, and includes waste which is potentially hazardous to human health or the environment;

means a notice issued under section 21;

means a person designated or declared as such under section 18;

includes messuages, tenements or hereditaments, corporeal and incorporeal, buildings and other fixtures, paths, passageways, watercourses, easements, plantations, gardens, mines, minerals and quarries, the foreshore and seabed or anything resting on the seabed;

means the registered proprietor of any land, or of any estate or interest in it or proprietor of any lease or sublease and includes the mataqali or other division or subdivision of iTaukei having a customary right to occupy or use any iTaukei lands;

means any discarded or abandoned material which maintains the physical state of continuous volume relatively independent of pressure and which takes the shape of its container at ambient temperature;

means—

• (a)for urban areas, the appropriate city or town council constituted under the Local Government Act 1972; or
• (b)for rural areas—
  • (i)in relation to a non-health service, the municipal council designated under section 6A of the Local Government Act 1972; or
  • (ii)in relation to a health service, the Central Board of Health;

means a plan specifying an overview of existing legal instruments and non-regulatory mechanism for managing chemicals, including their implementation and enforcement;

means a document specifying comprehensive overview and assessment of the existing national, legal, institutional, administrative and technical infrastructure related to the sound management of chemicals;

means the National Environment Council established by section 7;

means the strategy of that name formulated under section 24;

means the National State of the Environment Report prepared under section 23;

means the natural resources of Fiji set out in the Natural Resource Inventory, and resources has a corresponding meaning;

means the inventory of that name established under section 25;

means the plan of that name formulated under section 25;

means development activity requiring the substantial use of modern methods, including machinery and explosives, or materials, including plastics, electricity, petrochemicals, metals, concrete or milled timber;

means permanent or quasi-permanent dwellings, buildings, walls or shore protective works produced from non-traditional development activities;

means any product made of any material of any nature to be used for the containment, protection, handling, delivery and presentation of goods from raw materials to processed goods, from the producer to the user or the consumer and includes non-returnable items used for packaging purposes;

means any packaging or packaging material discarded as waste;

means the permanent secretary responsible for environment;

means a permit issued under Part 5;

means dredged spoil, solid or liquid waste, industrial, municipal or agricultural waste, incinerator residue, sewage, sewage sludge, garbage, chemical waste, hazardous waste, biological material, radioactive materials, wrecked or discarded equipment, oil or any oil residue and exhaust gases or other similar matter;

means the introduction, either directly or indirectly, of a waste or pollutant into the environment, which results in harm to living resources and marine life, hazards to human health, hindrance to marine activities including fishing and other legitimate uses of the sea, impairment of quality for use of water, air or soil, reduction of amenities or the creation of a nuisance;

means a notice issued under section 21;

means a person or body that proposes to carry out a development activity or undertaking, or is the owner or person having charge, management or control of the development activity or undertaking, and, where a ministry, department or statutory authority proposes to carry out a development activity or undertaking, means that ministry, department or authority;

has the meaning given to it in the Endangered and Protected Species Act 2002;

means the establishment of measures to ensure the protection of human health, safety, property, legitimate uses of the environment, species of flora and fauna, ecosystems, aesthetic properties and cultural resources, or preventing nuisance or risk of harm to any such value, on a sustainable basis;

means a unit mentioned in section 13;

means an Act listed in Schedule 1 and includes any subsidiary legislation made under a Scheduled Act;

means scoping of a development proposal under Part 4 to determine the scope of the EIA report in order to ensure that the report addresses all relevant issues and concerns arising out of the proposal;

in relation to a development proposal, means an impact on the environment, either in the context of the setting of the proposed development or in the context of the intensity of the proposed development’s effect on the environment, and includes, but is not limited to—

• (a)the degree to which public health and safety are affected;
• (b)the degree to which the unique characteristics of the geographic area are affected;
• (c)the degree to which effects on the environment are likely to involve controversy;
• (d)the degree to which unique and unknown risks are taken;
• (e)the degree to which a precedent for future action is created;
• (f)the potential for cumulative environmental impacts;
• (g)the degree to which the natural functioning of the ecosystem is likely to be inhibited;
• (h)the degree to which a cultural, traditional, natural, scientific or historic resource may be threatened;
• (i)the potential threat to the existence of protected and endangered species or their critical habitat;
• (j)the degree to which fish and wildlife resources of ecological, commercial, subsistence and recreational importance are jeopardised; or
• (k)the extent to which one aspect of use of a resource may conflict or contrary with another aspect of use of that resource;

means white goods discarded as waste including waste from chemical metal processing and pharmaceutical or agrochemical waste;

means development that meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs, and implies using resources to improve the quality of human life within their carrying capacity;

means the use of customary or traditional methods, practices and materials to enhance the occupation or use of land granted through the customary land tenure system, but does not include those activities requiring the substantial use of machinery and explosives and other modern methods or plastics, electricity, petrochemicals, metals, concrete and milled timber or other modern materials;

means any dwelling or other building constructed with traditional materials or a combination of traditional and modern materials or the use of traditional or customary methods or a combination of traditional or customary methods and modern methods, but does not include—

• (a)any permanent dwelling, building, sea wall or shore protection works produced by modern methods or from modern materials; or
• (b)a structure built on a significantly larger scale than those built historically;

means a vessel of any type whatsoever operating in the marine environment and includes a hydrofoil, an air cushion vehicle, a submersible, a floating craft, a hovercraft or a fixed or floating platform or a waterborne craft or any type whatsoever, whether self-propelled or not;

includes litter, garbage, refuse, excavated and dredged spoil and other discarded materials including any derelict motor vehicles or parts, waste materials from a residential, commercial or industrial facility and from community activities (excluding religious offerings), solid or dissolved material in domestic sewage or other substances in water sources, such as silt, dissolved or suspended solids in industrial wastewater effluent, dissolved materials in irrigation return flows or other common water pollutants;

means discarded or obsolete refrigerators, washing machines, dryers, ranges, water heaters, freezers, stoves or any other similar appliances used for domestic, private, industrial or commercial purposes; and

means the Waste and Pollution Control Administrator mentioned in section 14.