Legal Framework for Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) in Large- Scale Infrastructure Projects

Abstract

The Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) has proved to be an effective law instrument which indictates the direction of action concerning the big infrastructure projects which are environment sensitive. As the processes of infrastructural developments in the world continue to increase in pace with the economic growth, urbanisation and energy demand, damming, road building, laying pipeline and industrialisation are some of the activities that have increasingly posed a threat to the ecosystems and the human communities. To establish a balance between the promotion and development priorities and environmental and social equity protecting therefore necessitates fully-developed legal frameworks on the EIA.  When examining the procedural formulas, the current paper will dwell on the legal framework with the help of which the Environmental Impact of the large construction project will be examined, covering the way it evolved and what legal framework based it. It has followed the evolution of the EIA law as an infant national law and a utilitarian decision making instrument to its incorporation in the international environmental agreements, development banks, aid agencies, and other domestic legislations. Principles of EIA like risk prevention, precaution, public participation, transparency and sustainable development are analysed and the implications of the principles on
infrastructure decision making and practice permitting are discussed in the context of integrating environmental issues in the infrastructure development.  Also discussed in the paper is the nature of EIA regulatory regimes which encompass screening and scoping, impact prediction and assessment, alternatives consideration, mitigation requirements and monitoring obligation. It also dwells on procedural safeguards as institutional roles, consultation of the people and judicial review which may result in heightened responsibility and legitimacy. Continued criticisms of the EIA practice are identified as institutional capacity, lack of scientific information, cumulative impacts, and political interests.  The analysis concludes that EIA legal systems are able and have a positive and conclusive
role in environmental governance, yet the performances and results are reliant on the good implementation, institutional capacity and commitment to sustainable development.