Environmental impact assessment training manual

The EIA Learning Platform and the accompanying manual seek to help build capacity for key aspects of
environmental impact assessment (EIA) at the project and initiative levels in the context of national legislation and policies. This platform is summarized in an online learning tool that can be used for individual and/or group learning with or without a teacher. This document can be used as a support material while working with the online platform.
Focus This document provides an overview of common EIA processes and illustrated with examples of issues, case studies and sectors relevant for Honduras. The examples are mostly centred on countries that are part of the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). CAFTA is a regional agreement between the United States, five Central American countries (Costa Rica, Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala) and the Dominican Republic.
Under CAFTA, proposed large projects are required to develop an EIA to identify and mitigate negative impacts and enhance potential beneficial impacts throughout their whole lifecycle. This platform summarizes relevant information for the involved countries and others in the region. Regarding enforcement, the guidelines emphasize auditable commitment language, monitoring and follow-up, as well as compliance with EIA procedures and existing environmental performance requirements that are benchmarked in Appendix C for many different countries and international organizations.

Specifically, the EIA Learning Platform aims to help its target users:

• Understand the key elements of the EIA process based on best practices from global initiatives, including
  those led by development banks such as the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank and others.
• Understand the importance of a mandate for an EIA using specific case studies and examples from CAFTA
  countries and other Central American countries.
• Become familiar with key aspects of EIA project screening in order to gain skills in assessing the planned
  project/initiatives features to decide if an EIA is needed.
• Acquire the knowledge and skills to understand basic EIA steps with a focus on legislation in Honduras.

Capacity is multidimensional, particularly in an area as complex as an EIA, which requires a targeted approach. Such a targeted approach includes the need for immediately available information (in a user-friendly form). There is a large amount of information on EIAs, including guidance on methodological approaches, case studies and best practices at the national, local and project levels. Therefore, the EIA Learning Platform should be seen as providing a representative selection of the vast information sources on EIA relevant for this application and context.
The Audience The target audience for the EIA Learning Platform includes facilitators who construct EIA training curricula and, ultimately, the participants in capacity-building programs. The latter group primarily includes junior policymakers and EIA developers in public and private agencies, with overall responsibility for initiating and managing EIA assessment. They may work on different scales, from national governments to states and provinces, and municipalities. Many of them would have prior assessment or state-of-the environment assessment experience.
Based on experience with previous training efforts, EIA practitioners may also include representatives of nongovernmental organizations, academics, students, and media. The emphasis is on the EIA process as a whole and on helping diverse participants learn from listed case studies and resources materials, and use the developed checklists.

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