Inece - International Network for Environmental Compliance and Enforcement

Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) refers to both a decision making process and a document that provides a systematic, reproducible, and interdiscliplinary evaluation of the potential effects of a proposed action and its practical alternatives.  Proposed actions may include projects, programs, policies, or plans.

As a decision making process, EIA provides a means for decision makers to better integrate environmental, social, and economic concerns.  It provides the opportunity for all stakeholders in a proposed action, including the public, to participate in the identification of issues of concern, practical alternatives, and to identify opportunities to avoid or mitigate adverse impacts.

EIA requirements are perhaps the most widely adopted environmental requirements by both individual countries and international organizations.

The enforcement challenges for EIA include: construction without EIA approval; illegal construction in protected areas due to faulty information on project location; lack of enforceable language for key environmental management provisions; and inadequate detail on proposed project, mitigation and monitoring.

INECE helps build capacity for improving compliance with requirements for the environmental impact assessment process and with commitments which result from decision-making related to EIA through exchange of international good practice, specifically in the monitoring and follow-up aspects of EIA and through global and regional networks in cooperation with the International Association for Impact Assessment (IAIA), the World Bank, and regional development banks.