The NEAP was prepared in 1994 as a comprehensive plan to contain the ever increasing environmental degradation in Zambia. The preparation of NEAP was as a result of Government's desire to update the National Conservation Strategy through the National Environment Action Plan (NEAP). This was because:
• The economy was undergoing a period of liberalization.
• The main NCS recommendations had been implemented.
• The technical information in the NCS needed updating.
• There was a requirement by World Bank for a NEAP as a prerequisite for International Development Association (IDA) loan funding
The NEAP is founded on three fundamental principles:
• The right of citizens to a clean and healthy environment.
• Local community and private sector participation in natural resources management
• Obligatory Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) of major development projects in all sectors.
The overall objective of the NEAP is to integrate environmental concerns into the social and economic development planning process of the country.
The main thrust of the NEAP is to identify environmental problems and issues, analyse their causes and recommend actions required to resolve those issues. In the NEAP, this is done for the major sectors. Some recommendations, inevitably, cut across several sectors. From the recommended actions, an implementation strategy is drawn for each sector and it proposes the action, priority ranking, time-frame for its implementation and finally the Responsible Agency for the implementation of the recommendation. These proposed actions will therefore form the basis for a detailed action plan which will support the implementation of the NEAP through the Environmental Investment Programme (EIP).