DOES ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT FACILITATE ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT ACTIVITIES?

The aim of environmental impact assessment (EIA) is to ensure effective environmental management outcomes for development projects. Some argue it has failed to achieve this, because environmental management activities are not properly planned in the EIA process. The extent of this problem is largely unknown, due to a lack of empirical evidence. This paper presents the results of research investigating environmental management planning within EIA in the state of Queensland, Australia. The study examined environmental management commitments within 285 environmental impact statements (EISs). The majority of the EISs contained environmental monitoring and mitigation commitments and more than half identified corrective actions. This suggests that EIA facilitated environmental management within some developments. Nevertheless, many environmental management activities were not addressed in EISs, even when specifically requested. Trends in environmental management planning over time revealed dramatic improvements. These appeared to have resulted from an increase in government requirements for, and the provision of guidelines to assist, environmental management planning. These findings suggest improved environmental management must be facilitated by government agencies, rather than relying upon industry innovation.