Environmental assessment procedures and issues in the Pacific Basin-Southeast Asia region
Abstract
Introduction International concern about the environmental effects of development has grown rapidly over the last three decades. At first, environmental problems were perceived mainly as problems for wealthy countries. Now they have become recognized as problems for poor and rich countries alike, and consideration of the environmental effects of development has become a central rather than a peripheral issue in the planning and assessment of development programmes. Environmental problems relate to questions of ecologically sustainable development including resource use, the maintenance of productive ecosystems and biodi-versity, ...
View more >Introduction International concern about the environmental effects of development has grown rapidly over the last three decades. At first, environmental problems were perceived mainly as problems for wealthy countries. Now they have become recognized as problems for poor and rich countries alike, and consideration of the environmental effects of development has become a central rather than a peripheral issue in the planning and assessment of development programmes. Environmental problems relate to questions of ecologically sustainable development including resource use, the maintenance of productive ecosystems and biodi-versity, and human physical and social health. Environment is defined in its broadest sense to incorporate both the natural and the cultural dimensions. Most developing countries in the Asia and Pacific regions are very much aware of the costs of environmental degradation and the effects of development planning and, in some, there are now many years of experience in attempting to assess, mitigate, and monitor adverse environmental impacts of development projects and programmes. However, in other countries, formative steps are only now being taken towards such assessments. This paper focuses on the procedures and the effectiveness of environmental impact assessment (EIA) of 17 countries as they were reported at a training w. orkshop on environmental assessment for development planning at Griffith University in Brisbane, Australia, in July 1988. All but three of the 37 participants at the workshop came from the Pacific Basin and Southeast Asian countries (as -shown in Table 1) and included government officials, academics, and representatives from industry. All were either practitioners or intending practitioners in EIA but with a variety of backgrounds in planning, engineering, conservation, pollution control, or natural resource management. The purpose of the workshop was to assist in manpower development in the region and to advance the practice of environmental assessment in development planning.
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View more >Introduction International concern about the environmental effects of development has grown rapidly over the last three decades. At first, environmental problems were perceived mainly as problems for wealthy countries. Now they have become recognized as problems for poor and rich countries alike, and consideration of the environmental effects of development has become a central rather than a peripheral issue in the planning and assessment of development programmes. Environmental problems relate to questions of ecologically sustainable development including resource use, the maintenance of productive ecosystems and biodi-versity, and human physical and social health. Environment is defined in its broadest sense to incorporate both the natural and the cultural dimensions. Most developing countries in the Asia and Pacific regions are very much aware of the costs of environmental degradation and the effects of development planning and, in some, there are now many years of experience in attempting to assess, mitigate, and monitor adverse environmental impacts of development projects and programmes. However, in other countries, formative steps are only now being taken towards such assessments. This paper focuses on the procedures and the effectiveness of environmental impact assessment (EIA) of 17 countries as they were reported at a training w. orkshop on environmental assessment for development planning at Griffith University in Brisbane, Australia, in July 1988. All but three of the 37 participants at the workshop came from the Pacific Basin and Southeast Asian countries (as -shown in Table 1) and included government officials, academics, and representatives from industry. All were either practitioners or intending practitioners in EIA but with a variety of backgrounds in planning, engineering, conservation, pollution control, or natural resource management. The purpose of the workshop was to assist in manpower development in the region and to advance the practice of environmental assessment in development planning.
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Journal Title
Environmental Impact Assessment Review
Volume
11
Issue
2
Subject
Environmental sciences
Built environment and design
Human society