EIA Practice World-wide adoption of EIA ■ Twenty years ago only few countries adopted EIA techniques but today more than 100 countries have national EIA systems in place;
■ EIA can be said to be a highly successful policy
instrument as Bartlett (1988) rightly mentioned that “EIA is one of the major policy innovation of the 20th century”.
■ The symbol of progress in this regard are the US
National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA, 1969) and the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, 1992. The road from NEPA to Rio and beyond is the key milestone in this regard. Key stages in the worldwide adaptation of EIA
■ In 1973 & ’74 Canada, Australia, and New Zealand
were the first countries to follow the NEPA example. ■ Unlike Australia which legislated EIA, Canada and New Zealand initially established administratively based procedures; ■ During the 1970s, other industrial and developing countries introduced formal EIA requirements (e.g. France 1976 and Philippines, 1977) began to use the process informally or experimentally (e.g. The Netherlands 1978) Key stages in the worldwide adaptation of EIA….
■ Within the European Union, the 1985 directive on
EIA established minimum provision for compliance by the member states.
■ In 1988, the directive spurred national legislation and
process development, although progress reportedly still remains not uniform among member states. Key stages in the worldwide adaptation of EIA
■ In 1989, under operational directive (amended 1991),
EIA became a standard requirement for World Bank finance investment projects.
■ The primary responsibility for compliance with the
Bank’s EIA procedures lies with the borrowing countries.
■ As a result of these and similar requirements by other
development banks and donors, EIA came into wide use in developing countries. Key stages in the worldwide adaptation of EIA…..
■ In 1992 Earth Summit emphasized the adoption of
EIA process by the signatory countries to the conventions on Biological Diversity, and Climate Change.
■ During post-Rio, various capacity building activities
now underway by multilateral and donor agencies which represent a further phase of the worldwide spread of EIA. Several converging factors led to the spread of EIA in 1970s:
■ A tradition of rational planning;
■ A new level of public concern about the
environment;
■ The increasing scale and wider impact of major
development schemes;
■ The failure of project appraisal and review
procedures to account for evident ecological and community impact. Evaluation of EIA Time Examples of process innovation period Pre 1970 Project review based on the technical/engineering (pre-EA) and economic analysis; Limited consideration given on the environmental consequences. Early/mid EIA introduced (NEPA, 1969 in USA); 1970s Basic principals, guidelines, procedures, including (Methodo-lo public participation; & other requirement instituted; gical Develop-me Standard methodologies for impact analysis nt) developed (i.e. matrix, checklists, networks);
Several other countries adopted the NEPA based
EIA approach (e.g. Canada, Australia, New Zealand); Late 1970s to More formalized guideline; early 1980s (Social Use of EIA by developing countries (e.g. dimension Brazil, Philippines, China, Indonesia); included) SIA, risk analysis included in the EA process;
Greater emphasis on ecological modeling,
prediction and evaluation methods;
Informational (non-hearing) provisions for
public involvement;
Coordination of EIA with landuse planning
processes (e.g. New South Wales, Victoria). Mid 1980s to EC Directive on EIA establishes basic principles end of decade and procedural requirements for all member (Process and states; procedural redirection) Increasing efforts to address cumulative effects;
Development of follow up mechanisms (e.g.
compliances and effects monitoring, auditing, impact management);
Ecosystem and landscape level approaches
applied (e.g. assess wetland losses);
World Bank and other international lending and
aid agencies established EA requirements;
Increasing number of developing countries carry
out EIAs (e.g. Asia). 1990s Sustainability principles and global issues (Sustaina-b receive increased attention; ility paradigm) Requirement to consider transboundary effects under Espoo Convention; EIA identified as implementing mechanism for UN conventions on climate change and biological diversity; SEA systems established by increasing number of countries; Increasing use of GIS and other information technologies; Sustainable development Sustainable development is a key concept that has gained increasing international acceptance during the last two decades. A milestone in this process was the Brundtland report, which defined sustainable development as development that meets the needs of todays generation without compromising those of future generations.
Agenda 21, the global action plan for sustainable
development, emphasises the importance of integrated environment and development decision-making and promotes the use of EIA and other policy instruments for this purpose. Challenges of sustainable development
1. Human activity is currently consuming about 30%
more of net primary productivity on land; 2. 60% of the world population live close to or under the poverty line; 3. The world population is projected to be doubled by this century.
Without major policy and technological changes, UNEP
and other institutions have concluded that such trends threaten the stability of the world community and the global environment. Immediate objectives of EIA
■ Improve the environmental design of the proposal;
■ Ensure that resources are used appropriately and
efficiently;
■ Identify appropriate measures for mitigating the
potential impacts of the proposal; and
■ Facilitate informed decision making, including
setting the environmental terms and conditions for implementing the proposal. Long term objectives of EIA
■ Protect human health and safety;
■ Avoid irreversible changes and serious damage to