MAKING ENVIRONMENTAL-IMPACT ASSESSMENT CONVINCIBLE TO DEVELOPING-COUNTRIES

Only a very few developing countries have formally institutionalised E IA practices. This paper claims that the reasons for this slow rate fo r adopting formal EIA principles and practices are no longer those dis cussed in earlier literature which include the absence of an enabling environment. Rather, developing countries require a system which is ca pable of demonstrating that environmental impact analyses are not diff icult to undertake and that, had they been undertaken, some adverse ef fects of new projects could have been averted. For this purpose, the c oncept of an EIA study is introduced. It provides a method of evaluati on whose application is not inevitably political. The scope, time and content of the study could be determined exclusively by a single resea rcher or an environmental agency with little or no political influence . Such studies can then be used to provide an objective assessment of the winners and losers from projects. Their results can be used as con crete evidence in developing countries regarding the merits of EIAs. E IA studies are differentiated from ex post evaluation of projects in t he paper. (C) 1996 Academic Press Limited