Environmental Management

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ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT

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ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT

An Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) is a decision making tool that predicts the environmental and social consequences which a future project/intervention might entail. It is carried out before project implementation and proposes measures to minimize, mitigate and/or offset potential negative impacts (threats) and to enhance opportunities (positive impacts) identified.

In Tanzania, EIA process is regulated by The Environmental Management (Environmental Impact Assessment and Audit) (Amendment) Regulations, 2018 and shall be read as one with the Environment Impact Assessment and Audit Regulations, 2005 which is the principal Regulations.

The Regulation classifies the future projects/interventions into three categories taking into consideration their magnitude of impacts on the environment. The categories are:

“A” for Mandatory Projects;
“B1” for Borderline Project;
“B2” for non-Mandatory; and
“Special Category.

The First Schedule of EIA and Audit (Amendment) Regulation, 2018 details criteria for categorizing projects.

Zanzibar conducts ESIA based on the following principles:

Participation–appropriate/timely access for interested parties
Transparency–open and accessible assessment decisions
Certainty–process/timing agreed in advance
Credibility–undertaken with professionalism/objectivity Tansheq, is registered to conduct ESIA in Tanzania mainland and
Cost effectiveness – environmental protection at the least cost to society
Flexibility – adaptable to deal efficiently with any proposal and decision situation
Practicality–information/outputs readily usable in decision making and planning

Upon registration of the project, National Environment Management Council (NEMC), which is the apex body for environmental management in Tanzania, shall processes the applications as detailed in the Flowchart.

Strategic Environmental and Social Assessmen

A Strategic Environmental and Social Assessment (SESA) is a systematic process for evaluating the environmental implications of a proposed policy, plan or programme and provides means for looking at cumulative effects and appropriately address them at the earliest stage of decision making alongside economic and social considerations.

SESA process commences with the analysis of the Draft proposed policy, plan, or programme. The information gained from this analysis guides the collection of baseline data, which is designed to provide information on the potential environmental and social impacts related to implementation of the Draft proposed policy, plan, or programme.

The analysis of the Draft proposed policy, plan or programme also guided the conduct of the Stakeholder Consultations.

The simultaneous collection of baseline data and consultation with the stakeholders provides information that facilitated the identification of policy, plan or programme and development alternatives. The alternatives to the draft policy, plan or programme are based on changes in the philosophy and approach to the policy, plan, or programme objective and to the reformulation of the categories. The potential cumulative impacts are assessed for each alternative to identify the alternative that had the least severity of impact to determine which alternative impact combination is acceptable or acceptable with mitigation, or unacceptable.

Although the flowchart depicts the analysis of the legislative and institutional environments as occurring after the Risk Analysis, this analysis begins at the same time. The information obtained through the data collection and the stakeholder consultations are used to guide the legislative and institutional analysis. The purpose of the legislative analysis is to determine the legal authority that the government must regulate and enforce measures to prevent potential environmental impacts, to enforce the legislation and to identify the capacity that the relevant government institutions must monitor and manage potential environmental impacts. Areas where different policies and legislations conflict each other were identified and proposal for harmonization suggested.

Conceptual Framework for creating the Strategic Management and Monitoring Plan

Rapid Natural Capital Risk Assessment:

As part of UNEP Financial Initiative (UNEPFI) this tool allows an institution to quickly identify the areas of highest natural capital risk.

Environmental Auditing:

Independent review intended to identify environmental compliance and management system implementation gaps, which leads into developing Action Plan.

Environmental Monitoring:

Processes and activities that need to take place to characterise and monitor the quality of the environment.

Environmental and Social Management System:

Refers to the management of an organization’s environmental and social programs in a comprehensive, systematic, planned and documented manner. This can be developed to meet requirements of ISO 14001, IFC performance standard 1 or Equator Principles no 4.

Environmental and Social Management Plan:

We develop means for addressing and mitigating risks and impacts identified during assessment, through avoidance, minimisation, and compensation/ offset. This might include comprehensive management plans (e.g. water management plan, waste management plan, resettlement action plan, indigenous peoples plan, emergency preparedness and response plan, decommissioning plan).

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