Environmental law is an important tool for environmental management. A review of the environmental legislation existing in developing countries presents a very diverse picture. Generally speaking, the Asian countries have for the most part well-established and often highly-developed legal systems, which, when necessary, can assimilate new legal mechanisms and legislation for environmental management without undue turbulence. In contrast, the African countries have not on the whole made environmental protection a part of the fundamental laws that exist at present.

Poor effectiveness of environmental legislation in developing countries should be a matter of very serious concern. Such poor effectiveness is primarily due to two major problems: a piecemeal, unsystematic legal approach to environmental management, and the lack of effective implementation of existing environmental legislation—irrespective of how good it may be to deal with the overall problem.