Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) systems are under pressure in many countries, driven by a call for efficiency and streamlining. Such a phenomenon is particularly clear in Brazil, where, in the ...past few years, a number of influential associations put forward documents proposing significant changes to environmental licensing and impact assessment regulations. So far, there is no publicly available information about any initiative towards scrutinizing those proposals. The objective of this study was to critically review the merits and drawbacks of the changes proposed in those documents. The analysis triangulated content analysis, focus group and online survey data. The focus group included ten seasoned Brazilian EIA specialists; the survey, based on Likert-scale and open-ended questions, resulted in 322 valid responses from EIA professionals. Results show that the proposals generally agree that the current EIA system, while playing a key role in mitigating impacts and enhancing project design, needs many changes. Nonetheless, the proposals neither offered solutions to overcome political, technical and budget barriers, nor established a sense of priority of the most urgent issues. Findings from the focus group and the survey signaled that a number of proposed actions might face public outcry, and that those changes that do not depend on legislative action are more likely to be implementable. Previous studies about EIA reform focused mostly on the context of developed countries after changes had taken place. This study, while addressing the perspective of a large developing country in a “before-reform” stage, shows that capacity-building is a key requirement in EIA reform.
•Brazil's EIA system is under strong pressure for change.•Findings corroborate ineffectiveness in current system.•There are tensions as to the best approaches to overcome problems.•Exact effects of proposals are uncertain.•Low institutional capacity can play strong role in driving EIA reform.
Federal agencies have taken steps to include the public in a wide range of environmental decisions. Although some form of public participation is often required by law, agencies usually have broad ...discretion about the extent of that involvement. Approaches vary widely, from holding public information-gathering meetings to forming advisory groups to actively including citizens in making and implementing decisions.
Proponents of public participation argue that those who must live with the outcome of an environmental decision should have some influence on it. Critics maintain that public participation slows decision making and can lower its quality by including people unfamiliar with the science involved.
This book concludes that, when done correctly, public participation improves the quality of federal agencies' decisions about the environment. Well-managed public involvement also increases the legitimacy of decisions in the eyes of those affected by them, which makes it more likely that the decisions will be implemented effectively. This book recommends that agencies recognize public participation as valuable to their objectives, not just as a formality required by the law. It details principles and approaches agencies can use to successfully involve the public.
Environmental Assessment is an inherently interdisciplinary mechanism which is concerned with the input and quality of information about the likely effects of development upon the environment. It is ...a useful tool for examining aspects of the relationship between law, governance, and the regulation of decision making, which have been central to the development of environmental law. In this volume, the procedural mechanism of environmental assessment is analysed. The author argues that, notwithstanding its procedural nature, environmental assessment is highly material to the outcome of a decision. A major focus of this analysis is the enhanced role of the developer in shaping the outcome of a decision by assuming responsibility for providing information on which a decision will be based, in accordance with a broader agenda of expanding the roles and responsibilities of participants in environmental decision making. The author draws upon several contemporary projects as case studies of assessment: a global port, an offshore windfarm, a flood defence strategy, and a recreation centre. In analysing these sites of decision making from a legal perspective, the author touches upon the key determinants of environmental assessment: discretion, the significance of environmental effects, alternative options, and participatory rights. Finally, the volume looks to the future development of environmental assessment: as an avenue for protest, and, alternatively, as a standardized component of international contracts for development.
Analyzing the effectiveness of environmental impact assessment (EIA) is an important theme in EIA literature. Over the course of its development, the manifold term “effectiveness” has been delineated ...into four dimensions: Procedural, substantive, transactive, and normative. The present state of the art review covers not only studies about these concepts, but also the methods used to test them. It analyzes trends in 64 studies over a 20-year period. It is observed that results oriented research is more common than process oriented, but given the links between results and processes, procedural effectiveness remains the lens through which policy solutions are analyzed. Future research is recommended comparing developing and developed countries as well as studies focusing on subnational EIA systems. Serious gaps in the literature remain, such as developing methods to evaluate the direct impact of EIA on decision-making and how to integrate the pluralism found in the EIA process for sustainable ends. Reliance on perceptual survey and interview methods is common for substantive and normative effectiveness studies. The least studied dimension, transactive dimension, requires more study, specifically the cost efficiency of EIA. Promisingly, multidimensional studies are becoming more common that highlight linkages among these dimensions, although the nature of these linkages must be tested with more case studies
•State of the art covering 59 articles from 1996 to June 2016.•Reviews effectiveness concepts and methodologies used to explore them.•Major gaps and trends identified for four effectiveness dimensions.•Discusses multidimensional EIA studies as future of the research field.
The present study develops a composite environmental impact index (CEII) to evaluate the extent of environmental degradation in agriculture after successfully validating its flexibility, ...applicability and relevance as a tool. The CEII tool is then applied to empirically measure the extent of environmental impacts of High Yield Variety (HYV) rice cultivation in three districts of north-western Bangladesh for a single crop year (October, 2012–September, 2013). Results reveal that 27 to 69 per cent of the theoretical maximum level of environmental damage is created due to HYV rice cultivation with significant regional variations in the CEII scores, implying that policy interventions are required in environmentally critical areas in order to sustain agriculture in Bangladesh.
•Agricultural sustainability measured using a Composite Environmental Impact Index.•Proposed CEII tool is valid in terms of flexibility, applicability and relevance.•27–69% of theoretically max environmental damage is created by HYV rice production.•Significant regional differences exist in CEII scores requiring policy intervention.
A sociedade vem cobrando das empresas um desempenho mais sustentável devido ao fato de que boa parte dos problemas ambientais são ocasionados por elas. Nesse sentido, espera-se que as empresas ...melhorem seu desempenho, evidenciando-o. Este estudo tem como objetivo, analisar a relação entre a evidenciação ambiental e o desempenho ambiental. A amostra da pesquisa conta com 16 empresas dos setores altamente poluentes. Para medir o desempenho ambiental, foram utilizados 3 indicadores da base de dados Refinitiv Eikon®, já para medir a evidenciação ambiental, foram analisados 10 critérios, sendo atribuído um ponto para cada item destacado no relatório anual ou de sustentabilidade, resultando em uma nota por empresa, que deverá ser de, no máximo, 10 pontos. Para unificar os 3 indicadores do desempenho ambiental, foi utilizado o método ADRIANA e para analisar a relação entre a evidenciação ambiental e o desempenho ambiental, foi utilizado regressão linear. Os resultados indicam que as empresas tendem a evidenciar mais informações sobre o uso de energia e/ou eficiência de energia, o uso de água e/ou eficiência de água e a geração e/ou gestão do lixo, porém, evidenciam menos sobre os impactos ambientais dos produtos e serviços e a liberação de produtos tóxicos (terra, água e ar) e outras descargas. Conclui-se que há uma relação positiva e significativa entre a evidenciação e o desempenho ambiental. Esses resultados buscam contribuir com a gestão empresarial indicando a relevância das ações sustentáveis bem como de sua evidenciação, ações estas que podem fortalecer as organizações e seus posicionamentos frente a concorrência.
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