General environmental duty

All Pavians and all visitors have a general duty to protect the environment. This recognises how important the environment is to the Pavian way of life.

Anyone in Pavia is legally required to not do anything that causes, or is likely to cause, environmental harm.

You can cause environmental harm by doing something that is bad, whether temporary or forever, for a quality or physical characteristic of the environment that helps ecological health or public amenity or safety.

If you want to do anything that might harm the Pavian environment, you need permission from the Pavian Government. We will consider the harm that you may cause and will ensure that you only sustainably take things from the environment in a way that minimises harm.

What is the environment?

Pavia has a significant natural environment. Because of this, we take a broad approach to defining “environment”.

In Pavia, the environment includes:

• all natural and physical resources (including wildlife, soil, water, minerals and air)
• the qualities and characteristics of locations, places and areas that contribute to their biological diversity and integrity, scientific value or interest, amenity, harmony and sense of community.

If you are in doubt whether something is part of the environment, ask a duke before doing anything to it.