Why Assess Environmental Impacts? The Big Picture Why does environment matter?

EA Training Course 2 History of Environmental Assessment Historical Background  Population Growth  Natural Resource Pressures  Urbanization  Industrialization

EA Training Course 3 History of Environmental Assessment Initial Responses  Lungs of the City -- parks for people  Sanitation  Forbid or Caution  Control or Eliminate  Resource Preservation  Resource Conservation  Preservation vs. Conservation?  Environment is Dynamic

EA Training Course 4 History of Environmental Assessment The Picture Comes Together (1960s)  Better Understanding of Ecosystems  Increasingly Visible Environmental Degradation  The View from Space

EA Training Course 5 History of Environmental Assessment Emergence of Environmental Assessment  First National Environmental Policy Act -- now over 200, worldwide application  EA is only one tool: Communication, Transparency, and Decision Making  Environmental Assessment Becomes a Practical Tool  Pollution Controls  Environmental Quality Standards  International Conventions  Environmental Procedures Matter

EA Training Course 6 History of Environmental Assessment EA is a Planning, Mitigation, and Monitoring Tool Concept Pre-feasibility Design Tenders Solicitations Construction Specifications Construction Operation Abandonment  Terms of Reference should reflect EA principles in all parts of project cycle  Consider mitigation and monitoring throughout

EA Training Course 7 History of Environmental Assessment USAID & Environmental Impact Assessment Timeline  No requirements anywhere until U.S. National Environmental Policy Act 1970  NGO sues USAID over negligent pesticide (workers in Pakistan died)  Settlement of suit requires USAID to assess its pesticide activities  As a result of suit, USAID develops procedures to assess all activities  72 CFR Part 216, then revised and final in 1980  Consistent with sprit of U.S. National Environmental Policy Act

EA Training Course 8 History of Environmental Assessment USAID & Environmental Impact Assessment Timeline Cont  Executive Order requires all U.S. agencies to consider environmental impacts of actions abroad  Environmental Assessment incorporated by reference into Foreign Assistance Act 1981 Post 1980  Environmental procedures applied to all agency projects  Core staff of environmental officers in each Bureau  Process institutionalized  Effectiveness increasing  Most host countries have comparable procedures  New challenge is to achieve coherency of USAID and host country environmental procedures

EA Training Course 9 History of Environmental Assessment  USAID procedures are not equivalent to U.S. procedures for assessment of environmental impacts  Less stringent, formal requirements  No judicial review  Less public participation required

EA Training Course 10 History of Environmental Assessment More Environmental Milestones  UN Conference on the Human Environment - Stockholm 1972  UNEP  Brundtland Commission  Rio Summit - U.N. Conference on Environment and Development  Environment vs. Economics  Environment & Economics  Sustainability

EA Training Course 11 History of Environmental Assessment  Development involves the progressive transformation of economy and society to satisfy human needs and aspirations  Sustainable development meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs  Involves consideration of equity, i.e., access to resources and their distribution for this and future generations.

EA Training Course 12 History of Environmental Assessment So Why EA in the Long Run?  Food Security  Human Health  Quality of Life  Sustainable Resource Management  Stewardship of National & International Heritage for Future Generations  An Ecological Ethic