Comparison of the Environmental Impact Assessment procedure in Iran with the other countries

The significance and role of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) toward environmental planning and management of the potential impacts made to the environment, necessitates a comparison of the EIA procedure in Iran with that in other countries around the world. To this end, 10 countries and regions comprising developed countries (Canada, Finland, New Zealand and Belgium), developing countries (Brazil, Ghana, Jordan and Taiwan) as well as the Arctic and the Antarctic in regard with the special ecological conditions and special aspects of these regions, were selected. Then, information on the EIA procedure in each of these countries and regions were collected. At the first step, the EIA procedure in Iran was thoroughly observed and investigated. The procedure was then studied in the other selected countries and compared with that in Iran. A comparative study was conducted to investigate the EIA procedure in the selected countries and comparing them with that in Iran. For this purpose, each stage of the EIA procedure and the methodology for preparing an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) in Iran and the designated countries and regions were studied, investigated and then compared with each other. Based on the results of the comparative study, the most important shortcomings of the EIA model in Iran might be described as follows: 1) absence of public participation in the decision-making process 2) non-compilation of a strategic environmental assessment model, leading to non-inclusion of environmental principles in the preliminary stages of making policies, plans and programs. Finally, based on the studies conducted, a number of suggestions and solutions were presented for improving the EIA procedure in Iran and for further perception of the significance and role of this procedure as a managerial tool in order to create a balance between industrial activities and environmental protection. 88 Introduction Environment is an enormous and intricate web of a variety of active elements and components which has come into existence as a result of the gradual evolution of living organisms and constituents of the earth surface. As such, the environment affects human activities and is affected by them. Diversified economic and industrial activities, employment of advanced technologies and an increasing population growth have all led to the loss of the required equilibrium, harmony and order among the elements of the nature. Therefore, man can be considered as the most effective and the most important factor behind environmental changes. Whatever their nature, man’s activities toward development will have different effects on the environment (Shariat, 1997). Since the environment and development are two inseparable issues, it is essential to employ and use environmental management tools to minimize the damages made to the environment. To this end and for the purposes of ensuring environmental protection and fulfilling the objectives of sustainable development, a new scientific method and managerial tool called “Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA)” emerged in the early 1970s (Kennedy, 1998). The principal idea behind the Environmental Impact Assessment of projects is to create a balance between human activities and the environment. EIA can be considered as a method for determining, predicting and interpreting the environmental impacts of a proposed project on the whole environmental system, public health and ecosystems health. EIA is one of the rational ways of achieving the objectives of sustainable development and can be placed at the disposal of managers as a planning tool to assist them in identifying the potential environmental impacts, which emerge as a consequence of the execution of development and industrial-infrastructural projects and in choosing rational options to solve them (Jay, 2001). Concerns about the environment, which arise from the projects implementation, are rising day by day. For this reason, governments and international organizations are seeking to prepare a set of regulations whereby they would be able to legally bind projects’ employers and development plans’ authorities to comply with environmental rules and regulations in the preliminary stages of making policies, plans and programs (PPP). Therefore, a new branch of assessment called “Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA)” has emerged in order to improve the EIA procedure. SEA is an attempt to assess the impacts of policies, plans and programs in the future of an environmental area thereby enabling the specific strategy of the EIA within that specific area to be determined (Weston, 2000). 89 Preparing an environmental impact statement would make projects’ authorities be aware of the procedures of site selection, project implementation and potential impacts mitigation methods. In addition, the EIA results help government officials make decisions on the grant of authorizations to projects. Therefore, environmental impact assessment is the procedure of an official study aimed at predicting the potential impacts of a proposed project with emphasis on the presentation of mitigation methods (Stallworthy, 2001). Figure (1) indicates the major elements of an EIA procedure. The primary objective of preparing an environmental impact statement is to ensure policies and goals set out in a project’s programs and activities are in compliance with environmental standards, rules and regulations set by governments. Therefore, an environmental impact statement should include detailed information about the major and prominent impacts of a proposed project. Moreover, it should create maximum trust and confidence in decision-makers and in public by providing rational options which constitute the least impacts and all the conditions for enhancing the quality of the environment (winter, 2001). Based on the above-mentioned points, the most important objectives of environmental impact assessment might be summarized as follows (Shariat, 1997): • Eliminating and restoring the damages made to the environment; • Enhancing the level of public awareness; • Using public views in the decision-making process (Public Hearing); • Employing environmental standards and integrating them with developmental planning; • Creating a balance between the long-term objectives of development and the necessity for the majority of people to utilize development resources in line with environmental protection; • Gaining knowledge of the critical environmental issues and problems, which require investigation, study, control and monitoring. Although the development of Iran’s EIA model is based on Western European and North American models, the nonconformity of this model with the prevailing