History of Environmental Assessment

advertisement
Why Assess Environmental
Impacts?
Environmental impact assessment
 A formal process process for
identifying the likely effects of
particular activities or projects on the
environment, and on human health
and welfare
History of Environmental Assessment
EA Training Course
2
Why did EIA start?
 By the early 1960s in the US and other
industrial countries, it was clear that
something was wrong
History of Environmental Assessment
EA Training Course
3
“30 Years of Environmental Progress,” USEPA, 2000.
History of Environmental Assessment
EA Training Course
4
Cuyahoga River burns in 1966 (3rd time). Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.
“30 Years of Environmental Progress,” USEPA, 2000.
History of Environmental Assessment
EA Training Course
5
Environmental crisis in the
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
History of Environmental Assessment
EA Training Course
6
What was happening?
 Looking back from today, the causes
were obvious:





Population Growth
Natural Resource Pressures
Urbanization
Industrialization
Unrestrained profit motive
 These forces were all combining to
create unprecedented environmental
damage
History of Environmental Assessment
EA Training Course
7
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 worldwide
 Other responses included regulation of
industrial activity, international treaties
History of Environmental Assessment
EA Training Course
8
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 an environmental PVO,
and adopted environmental review
procedures to comply with NEPA (“Reg 216”)
 Almost all donor agencies now have
similar procedures
History of Environmental Assessment
EA Training Course
9
Why should developing countries
care about EIA?
 The difficult answer: Because 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
History of Environmental Assessment
EA Training Course
10
Land degradation and desertification:
satellite photo shows topsoil blowing
off SW African coast, from Angola to
S. Africa.
NASA
History of Environmental Assessment
EA Training Course
11
Chemical pollution: obsolete pesticides in Mozambique.
U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization
History of Environmental Assessment
EA Training Course
12
Deforestation: trees cleared for planting in Guinea.
U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization
History of Environmental Assessment
EA Training Course
13
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
History of Environmental Assessment
EA Training Course
14
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 not fulfilled this basic mandate
 The environment is complicated—without
EIA, it is difficult to know when harm will
come
 EIA should also be proactive.
History of Environmental Assessment
EA Training Course
15
 EIA is critical to ensure that the
environment will support vital
ecosystem services upon which all
human subsistence and economic
activity depends.
History of Environmental Assessment
EA Training Course
16
The role of EIA in conservationoriented 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?
History of Environmental Assessment
EA Training Course
17
The role of EIA in conservationoriented projects
YES!
History of Environmental Assessment
EA Training Course
18
The role of EIA in conservationoriented 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.
History of Environmental Assessment
EA Training Course
19
Download