ABSTRACT
Introduction of environmental management systems at the national level in many countries, and the
SUMMARY Improving the quality of life of citizens is the main policy objective of socio-economic development in all countries of the world. Hitherto most countries have attempted to achieve this by formulating and implementing development plans without any serious effort to integrate environmental considerations into the process. However, in order to ensure that human activities interfere only to an acceptable degree with the functioning of life support systems or natural ecological processes, environmental planning is now becoming an increasingly important imperative in the rapidly growing liberalised world economy.
