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Environmental Impact Assessment |
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Environmental Impact Assessment Environment Protection Act, 1994 The Environment Protection Act, 1994 offers us with a means of harmonizing a balance between the environment and development in a regulatory manner. The provisions for Environment Authorisation is well intended so as to give reasonable protection to the valuable and remarkable sensitive areas and for well-planned and appropriate development in an organized manner which is fully supported. The act provides for environmental policies that provides with a formula designed to reconcile our socio-economic development that allow us to build on a strong and lasting base to achieve sustainability. ENVIRONMENT IMPACT ASSESSMENT In an effort to achieve sustainable development, the Environment Protection Act 1994, has made provision for Environment Impact Assessment Regulations 1996. These regulations now provide us with a tool that helps all of us to reach the compromise between development and environment. To reach this objective, it is therefore necessary that. EVERY PROPOSAL FOR DEVELOPMENT be assessed to minimize its possible environmental impacts on the environment and to preserve it for future generations of the Seychellois people. Environment Impact Assessment Procedures The Concept of Environmental Impact Assessment is also not new in Seychelles and has defacto taken place since 1974 through the input in the Planning Authority from the Environment Sector i.e. formal, ad-hoc, in-house EIA to the now formal CLASS II EIAs. However, under the auspices of the Environment Protection Act (1995) and its Regulations,- more formal (CLASS-I) EIA procedures have gradually been introduced requiring full EIA. Studies by local or external experts and consultants with "Public Inspection of the EIA reports. This is a pragmatic adaptation of the EIA. Process, using existing institutions, avoiding duplication in consideration of technical manpower shortage, budgetary constraints as well as for efficiency and common sense. The "enabling" Environment Protection Act 1994 provides for the mandatory introduction of the formal EIA procedures in Seychelles. The Impact Regulations under this Act are now gazetted (May 1996) Simplified Environmental Analysis in-house EIA Class II One of the primary goal of the Environmental Impact Assessment of the Pollution Control and Environmental Impacts is to ensure that environmental considerations are given special attention during all types of development and at the same type provide an efficient means of inputting on the numerous applications for development with minimum delay and no additional and parallel bureaucracy for monitoring and enforcement. There are existing in-house ad-hoc Environment Impact Assessment procedures vis-à -vis the development Planning Applications and these are continuously been upgraded. These EIA are carried out on behalf of the proponent of projects by our well–trained staff who are guided by a detailed field checklist in their assessment. In the event that the environmental impacts of the proposed project are not very significant or can be mitigated, then an environmental authorization with specific conditions are issued to the proponent through the Planning Authority. In the event that the risks of environmental impacts are considered too high or cannot be mitigated to the satisfaction of the Ministry, then a refusal for development is issued. The proponent then has the opportunity to appeal if he/she feels aggrieved by the decision, he may then appeal to the Minister for Environment, whose decision on the development is final. Tourism & Project proposals requiring Class 1 EIAs A similar procedure as described above exist for Tourism projects Any tourism project proposal is firstly submitted to the Ministry of Tourism as part of the normal procedures. The Ministry of Tourism is to consult other Ministries and Agencies concerned. Upon receiving comments, the Ministry of Tourism advise the proponent to submit an outline Application to the Planning Authority. The Planning Authority then informs Ministries whilst at the same time seeking Environmental Authorisation from the Ministry of Environment. The Ministry of Environment studies the Outline Application and decides which class of Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) is required. If a Class II EIA is required, the procedures described above are followed. If a Class I EIA is required then it advises the Planning Authority to inform the proponent or its agent to contact the Division of Pollution control and Environmental Impacts (PCEI) for the scoping process terms of reference for the Environmental Impact Assessment required. In the scoping process, the proponent is requested to formal seek the views of the different stakeholders or other parties which could be affected by the development. The scoping report obtained as result of this process is then used to prepare the Terms of Reference (TOR) of the EIA. The proponent or his agent then consults the Ministry of Environment for the terms of reference. A first draft Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is then submitted to the Ministry for verification and then put on display for public inspection. Once completed, if the EIA is up to the standard demanded by the Ministry, then it is put on a 2 week public inspection period where it can be viewed and commented upon by any interested member of the public. The public comments are then taken into consideration when appraising the EIA. An appraisal is then made by the Appraisal Committee set up by the Ministry of Environment and the Ministry's decision is then sent to the Planning Authority in the Ministry of Land Use & Habitat and usually after this stage the Developer can the proceed with his detailed planning application. |
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