Over 30 environmental impact assessments (EIAs) have been carried out in Tanzania to date. The majority of these were required by international development agencies. Legislation to make EIA a national requirement is to be introduced in Tanzania in the near future. The present situation provides an opportunity to assess the current effectiveness of EIA in Tanzania and to determine how it could be improved. Eighteen Tanzanian environmental impact statements (EISs) were reviewed using a procedure modified from that of the UK Institute of Environmental Assessment. In addition to the generally poor standard of Tanzanian EISs, inadequacy of public participation was found to be a key factor in limiting the effectiveness of EIA. Many of the deficiencies found during the EIS review could be rectified relatively easily and this paper seeks to offer some recommendations as to how this could be achieved.
This study aimed to assess the profitability of community afforestation programmes in Northeast Thailand and the Philippines. Financial and economic profitability were assessed using market prices and economic efficiency values respectively, for goods and factors of production. Environmental-economic profitability was evaluated by adding the monetary values of on-site costs of soil erosion, transpiration, nutrients lost in harvesting and carbon sequestration to the assessed economic profitability estimates. Economic profitability of afforestation was 40–50% higher than financial profitability, and environmental- economic profitability 6–100% higher, than economic profitability. Among the studied environmental impacts of afforestation, carbon sequestration and transpiration were most important in economic terms. A decrease in the discount rate improved afforestation profitability.
This article presents an objectively based approach to valuation of the environmental effects of a power plant reconstruction project. The economic value of hypothetical investment cost in throwaway flue gas desulphurisation systems is used as a surrogate measure for environmental benefits actually realised by extinguishing furnaces in the local heat plants. Such estimated benefits are incorporated in a cost-benefit framework.
Evaluations of environmental impact assessment (EIA) experiences are often anecdotal, raising the issue of generalizing beyond unique local conditions. A cross section of ten EIA reports is systematically reviewed in an effort to address this concern. The analysis is first placed in context with an overview of concepts and frameworks for assessing EIA quality and effectiveness. After presenting the study methodology, the ten EIAs are subjected to both a screening and a performance analysis. Examples of recurrent problem areas identified include: overall study design; the generation and evaluation of alternatives; the consideration of impact significance; uncertainty; cumulative effects potential and sustainability; and impact management integration and implementation.
Three major, controversial airport development proposals emerged in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom (UK) and Hong Kong (HK): Heathrow Terminal 5 (HT5) and Manchester Airport Second Runway (MA2) in the UK, and the Replacement Airport at Chek Lap Kok (CLK) in HK. An environmental impact assessment (EIA) was conducted for each of the three projects, demonstrating different levels of public participation in terms of influence on decision-making—negligible, low and moderate influence on the CLK, HT5 and MA2 proposals respectively. An opinion survey of the participants involved in the three proposals indicates that most consider public participation in EIA to be inadequate.
This paper reports on a comparative evaluation using quality control mechanisms of the environmental impact assessment (EIA) systems in three rapidly developing countries in the Southeast Asian region; Taiwan, Malaysia and Indonesia. Common attributes and failings of the EIA systems can be identified although they differ in many specifics. It is concluded that quality control mechanisms succeeded in highlighting the relative strengths and weaknesses of the EIA systems in the three case-study countries and offer a useful tool for this purpose.
A total of 44 environmental impact statements (EIS)submitted to planning authorities in Cork, Ireland from 1988 to 1993 were evaluated using a technique developed at the EIA Centre, University of Manchester, UK. This package was very useful as a framework for EIS assessment, but requires further development for successful application to specific project types. A substantial proportion of recent Irish EISs are unsatisfactory and weaknesses identified in earlier reviews remain. The current situation is influenced by the lack of scoping guidelines, deficiencies in legislation, and poor perceptions among developers and consultants of what constitutes an adequate EIS. It is hoped that new guidance produced by the Environmental Protection Agency will help to improve statement quality. This review can be used as a baseline against which to judge the effectiveness of the new guidance.
This paper presents, as a case study, the theoretical basis and the methodology that was developed to estimate bounds on the ‘value of waterfalls’, environmental assets threatened by a proposed hydropower project in Sri Lanka. The basic concepts of economic value and the extended benefit-cost rule for accepting a project were derived as theoretical bases. The cost and benefits of the main environmental impacts were valued, using valuation techniques based on the principles of environmental economics. The extended benefit—cost analyses of no- project, without-project, and with-project scenarios were used to develop a continuum of bounds on the value of waterfalls for prudent decision-making.
Since 1988 and the introduction into UK planning of the requirement for formal environmental impact assessment (EIA) of major projects, there has been much research on the quality of the environmental statements (ESs) submitted with planning applications. Yet the ES is only one part of the total environmental information (EI); its quality does not necessarily reflect the overall quality of the EIA process or of the decisions which flow from it. Ten case studies demonstrate this point, the complex process of gathering environmental information, and its relationship to the ES and decisionmaking. While the ES remains a key feature of EIA, it is often far less significant than the mass of other information assessed by local planning authorities in making decisions on major projects.
In spite of new understandings and the development and promotion of management methods in rural development and natural resource projects, rural development is still a problematic activity for many development personnel. Projects can be regarded as arenas of social interaction, where development personnel are a group within a whole range of actors who are constantly negotiating for resources, influence and social control. The way forward is to: gain a better understanding of the motivations, behaviour and reward structures of development actors; take responsibility for finding room to manoeuvre; create coalitions and networks; recognise which institutions are going to be built up and which weakened; and train development personnel in the political and cultural origins of the available methods.
This study examines several possible approaches for estimation of economic discount rates (EDRs). The main theoretical and methodological problems for such estimation are analysed together with the cursory treatment of time-series data in previous studies. Apart from the availability of pertinent data, the objective estimate of EDR depends on formulation of appropriate econometric models and their statistical validation. This study indicates that a value of 10.2% (real) would be appropriate for project appraisal in India.
This study deals with the difficulty that there is usually incomplete knowledge and data about an ecosystem and its environmental—economic interactions, thus hindering the development of a quantitative model for impact assessment. The method brings together a panel of experts and draws on their interdisciplinary expert knowledge of that and similar environmental systems. The panel ‘creates’ what its members view as likely data which describe instances of the causal relationship(s) under investigation. These artificial data are processed by standard statistical methods to identify the best formal model(s) describing the relevant relationship(s). The model can then be used to estimate environmental impacts caused by various expected external developments (investments projects, environmental policy, and so on). An application to a project in Greece is discussed.
This article outlines some concerns raised by a recent meeting of EIA practitioners over the use of computer software designed to assist the process of environmental impact assessment (EIA). Although relevant to developed nations, the concerns identified are most acute in developing countries, where EIA procedures have often been introduced into institutional settings which are poorly resourced and have low adaptive capabilities. The article concludes by offering ways in which those responsible for commissioning, designing and marketing EIA software might improve the utility of their products for developing countries.
This article reports on the experience gained in a study on the application of strategic environmental assessment (SEA) on two Danish bills. All five internationally recognised principles of SEA (a stated document, a fixed procedure, criteria for significance, alternatives and public participation) were included in the assessment. One bill was assessed retrospectively, the other while it was prepared by the competent ministry. The influence of the statement on the readings and adoption in Parliament was observed and analysed. A main conclusion is that it is feasible to carry out a full concept SEA on national policies in a highly relevant way. Some characteristics of SEA at the policy level are highlighted and three theses on SEA for further developments are given.
In Sri Lanka clay mining is mechanised, resulting in large pits, which fill with water in the wet season, so miners remove as much clay as possible during one dry season. This paper analyses both the private and social profitability of clay mining. The private profitability analysis includes the market cost to the miner of land, labour and equipment, and the market price of clay at the pit head. The market rate for capital is used as the discount rate. Economic benefits are compared with the social (environmental and non-environmental) costs to decide whether clay mining is socially profitable. Non- environmental social costs are shadow-priced land, labour, equipment and damage to roads, while environmental costs are health and lost productivity. The social discount rate is used for this analysis. Comparing profits to the miner and profits to society, it is seen that clay mining is both privately and socially profitable. See end of paper for acknowledgements.
Strategic environmental assessment (SEA) is still in its early stages in Central European countries, but already it is being used for different purposes from other countries, for instance, analysing privatisation. Using case studies from Hungary, Poland and East Slovakia the article describes the use of SEA techniques. Public consultation is still limited, but of more concern is that the SEAs are having a minimal effect on decision-making. There is a great opportunity in Central Europe in a time of major administrative change to introduce innovative ideas. Keywords: strategic environmental assessmentCzech RepublicHungaryPolandSlovak Republicproject appraisal
Stakeholder topics are one of the main ideas in development thinking that have been introduced in recent years. Based on methods for stakeholder analysis given by the Overseas Development Administration and Team UP software, a combined method was used to analyse two projects, one in India the other in Nigeria. The results are discussed and a revised method for stakeholder analysis is proposed.
This paper explores the arithmetic of the modified discounting method developed by Kula and Bellinger, and places in the public domain a computer algorithm to generate the modified discount factors. It tests the simplifying assumptions used by Kula, and finds these robust, indicating that the method can be used more extensively than in the special case of the United Kingdom. After unpacking the arithmetic it emerges that there are three rates of discount used for different conceptual purposes by this algorithm. There follows a discussion of which type of rate is appropriate for each purpose. This makes it possible to consider the appropriateness of the opportunity cost of capital and alternative rates without conflating the conceptual purposes.
This work has been prompted by a collaborative European project, The Development of The European Apple Crop (DEAC), funded by the CEC (Commission of European Communities) involving plant breeders, geneticists, and molecular biologists. Its aim is to: improve the European apple crop by molecular-aided breeding methods; increase efficiency; and reduce the time scale in breeding for disease- and pestresistance and fruit quality. One of the key objectives of the DE AC project is to reduce intensive pesticide use in the apple industry by breeding new disease-resistant varieties. This paper discusses the development of an economic-ecological mathematical model describing the potential impact of biotechnology projects. Keywords: mathematical modellinggoal programmingenvironmental impact quotients
