WHY ASSESS

ENVIRONMENTAL
IMPACTS?
 ENVIRONMENTAL
IMPACT ASSESSMENT

A formal process for identifying the likely

effects of particular activities or projects
on the environment, and on human health
and welfare.
 WHY DID EIA
START?

By the early 1960s in the US and other

industrial countries, it was clear that
SOMETHING WAS WRONG.
“30 Years of Environmental Progress,” USEPA, 2000.
Cuyahoga River burns in 1966 (3rd time). Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.
“30 Years of Environmental Progress,” USEPA, 2000.
 ENVIRONMENTAL
CRISIS IN THE WEALTHY
INDUSTRIAL
ECONOMIES

 1952 “killer fog” kills 4,000 in London

 1963 Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring
documents the negative effects of DDT
 1966 Cayahoga River in Ohio catches fire
—again!
 WHAT WAS HAPPENING?

 Looking back from today, the causes were obvious:

 Population Growth
 Natural Resource Pressures
 Urbanization
 Industrialization

 These forces combined to create unprecedented

environmental damage with consequent effects on
human health and welfare.
 EIA WAS ONE POLICY
RESPONSE IN
INDUSTRIALIZED
COUNTRIES
 In 1970, the US legislature passed the National
Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).
NEPA required EIA for US Government
projects. Mandated public input.
Now over 200 similar requirements world-wide
 Other responses included regulation of industrial
activity, international treaties
 WHY SHOULD DEVELOPING
COUNTRIES CARE ABOUT
EIA?

 Easy answer: Donor requirements.

 In the early 1970s, several Pakistani workers died as a result of
negligent pesticide management procedures on a USAID project.
 USAID was sued by a US environmental NGO, and adopted
environmental review procedures to comply with NEPA (“Reg.
216”)
 Almost all donor agencies now have similar procedures
 WHY SHOULD DEVELOPING
COUNTRIES CARE ABOUT
EIA?

 The difficult answer: A real environmental crisis

 The environmental crisis faced by most developing
countries is at least as serious as that of the
industrialized countries in the 1960s and 70s.
 Lower levels of industrialization, BUT. . .

 High population growth and urbanization

 Use of hazardous substances

 Environmental degradation due to poverty

Land degradation and desertification:
satellite photo shows topsoil blowing
off SW African coast, from Angola to
S. Africa.
NASA
Chemical pollution: obsolete pesticides in Mozambique.
U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization
Deforestation: trees cleared for planting in Guinea.
U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization
 ENVIRONMENTAL CRISIS
IN THE DEVELOPING
WORLD

 1984 Methyl isocyanate cloud from Union Carbide plant

accident in Bhopal, India kills 2,000+
 Cities with worst air quality: Developing country
megacities
 Millions of deaths/year from environmental conditions—
particularly poor sanitation
 EIA SUPPORTS
SUSTAINABLE
DEVELOPMENT

 Like medicine, the first principle of development should

be to “first, do no harm.”
 In its history, the development profession has often
failed this basic mandate
 The environment is complicated—without EIA, it is
difficult to know when harm will come.
 EIA SUPPORTS
SUSTAINABLE
DEVELOPMENT

 EIA should also be proactive

 More than just helping to avoid harm, EIA should
help to assure that development benefits are
maximized.
 THE ROLE OF EIA IN
CONSERVATION-ORIENTED
PROJECTS

 EIA is was developed to assure that the environmental

consequences of economic/social development projects
were adequately considered.
 So. . .Is EIA necessary if the goal of the project is
environmental in nature?
THE ROLE OF EIA IN CONSERVATION-
ORIENTED PROJECTS

YES!
 THE ROLE OF EIA IN
CONSERVATION-ORIENTED
PROJECTS

 Because EIA is:

a tool for considering secondary effects
 environmental, social and economic
 essential to gathering baseline information for the project
 . . .and to assessing results

 The result: The separation between EIA and project

development becomes indistinct.
 THE FINAL
MESSAGE

 EIA is critical to ensure that the environment will

support vital ecosystem services upon which all human
subsistence and economic activity depends.
 In “traditional” development activities
 In conservation-oriented activities
 EIA is a framework or structure to achieve Environmentally
Sound Design