Mwenezi Rural District Council (Environmental and Natural Resources Conservation) By-laws, 2024

The Minister of Local Government and Public Works has approved environmental and natural resources conservation by-laws for the Mwenezi Rural District Council area, made under section 90 of the Rural District Councils Act. They are the same template later used for Nkayi (S.I. 42 of 2024) and Mhondoro-Ngezi (S.I. 52 of 2024), with the council name changed.

Everything runs through a Local Environmental Action Plan. Council must prepare one under section 95 of the Environmental Management Act, place it on public exhibition, advertise where and when it can be inspected, invite objections within thirty days, and seek advice from the provincial planning officer, the provincial agriculture officer, the provincial environmental officer, the provincial warden and the provincial Mining Commissioner. If council departs from that advice it must give the Provincial Council written reasons. The Provincial Council has thirty days to approve or propose amendments, and council may appeal to Cabinet through the Minister. Once approved, the plan must be free to inspect at council offices and sent to every Ward Assembly.

The plan designates grazing areas, where council may cap total livestock numbers and per-owner numbers, decide who grazes where, and set deadlines to destock. Livestock found outside a designated grazing area are presumed to have been allowed there by the owner, subject to a reasonable-precautions defence, and a dipping card is treated as proof of custody of the cattle it records — a significant point in a district as heavily dependent on cattle as Mwenezi. The plan also designates cultivation areas and can control who cultivates, permitted crops and implements, rotation, noxious weeds, contour ridging, wood lots and renewable energy crop areas.

Project developers must consult council during any environmental impact assessment, involve council in community consultations with traditional leaders, disclose their consultant's details and EMA registration, and lodge both the EIA report and the approved report with the EMA certificate. Starting operations without doing so is an offence. Anyone commercially exploiting natural resources, mining expressly included, must lodge a rehabilitation plan and rehabilitate the environment before abandoning or closing a project.

The by-laws run to forty sections, going on to cover burning of vegetation and fire prevention, invasive alien species, wetlands, sleighs and farming implements, tree cutting, forest produce, removal of gravel, stones, river sand and pit sand, brick making, water source protection, biodiversity, commercial timber logging, wildlife and indigenous plants, fencing, air pollution, solid and effluent waste, landfills, littering, hazardous substances, mining and mineral panning, and genetic resources.

Two caveats. In every section available, the penalty is expressed only as "a fine prescribed by council", with a written warning possible for a first offence — no figure appears in the by-law, so residents must obtain the council's fine schedule separately. And the text available here is truncated partway through section 11, so sections 12 to 40, including section 40 on offences and penalties, are not covered above and must be read in the instrument itself.