Environmental Impact Assessment

A teaching paper.Most developing nations have embarked on a path to rapid economic growth. This has meant soliciting for many development projects which are meant to bring rewards: in increased industrial productivity. The hope is that these projects will increase the incomes of the people and cut down on unemployment. However past experiences have shown that these major development projects created with the aim of producing enormous socio-economic benefits, have also produced adverse environmental impacts. Some of these impacts are irreversible and the damage to the environment has been total. So in order to minimize the unintended negative externalities of these projects on the environment, there has to be some means of identifying the impacts of projects before they are embarked upon so that any adverse effects which the projects may produce on: the environment can be rectified or an alternative method which docs not damage the environment is worked out:. Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is the technique used to identify the likely impacts of a development project on the environment. Ideally this activity of EIA should be carried out at the early planning stages of projects. When carried out effectively, it will help to identify the probable facets of environmental degradation which will be due to the development activities. This technique provides the decision-makers with an insight into the environmental implications of proposed development projects and their alternatives. It will provide the decision maker with information on the environmental, health, and socio-economic impacts of an intended development project. The implication is that this technique should be an integral part of development plans and is an important decision making tool for all projects if damage to the environment is to be avoided. This paper is meant to acquaint students with EIA as a decision making tool in development planning. It covers all aspects relating to EIA activities from the objectives and scope of EIA; EIA methods; institutional set-up ; and the Zimbabwe situation as far as this activity is concerned. The environment in this paper is taken to mean the set of conditions surrounding an individual or event. These conditions could be physical, biological or socioeconomic in nature. The paper focuses on the technique used to identify impacts of development projects on these various facets of the environment. Those in the planning profession, decision makers and project planners will find this paper useful

On handling urban informality in southern Africa

In this article I reconsider the handling of urban informality by urban planning and management systems in southern Africa. I argue that authorities have a fetish about formality and that this is fuelled by an obsession with urban modernity. I stress that the desired city, largely inspired by Western notions of modernity, has not been and cannot be realized. Using illustrative cases of top–down interventions, I highlight and interrogate three strategies that authorities have deployed to handle informality in an effort to create or defend the modern city. I suggest that the fetish is built upon a desire for an urban modernity based on a concept of formal order that the authorities believe cannot coexist with the “disorder” and spatial “unruliness” of informality. I question the authorities' conviction that informality is an abomination that needs to be “converted”, dislocated or annihilated. I conclude that the very configuration of urban governance and socio-economic systems in the region, like the rest of sub-Saharan Africa, renders informality inevitable and its eradication impossible

Impact of land redistribution on the environment

A position paper on the impact of land distribution on the Zimbabwean Eco-system particularly its effects on rural development programmes.Environment degradation and sustainability of resettlement schemes has been a concern of most among the donor community based on their responses to the proposals presented at the Donor Conference. Government proposals argued that resettlement will lead to intensification of land utilisation as well as bring into production land that has hitherto been idle. Settlers who predominantly are for communal farmers use firewood as source of energy. Given this, it is expected that resettlement would lead to high rates of deforestation. Further settler households bring with them poor animal husbandry practices that have led to land degradation in communal areas. Generally, bringing together farmers from different areas destroys the traditional structures that helped in resource conservation, and the diversity of these farmers precludes emergence of such structures under resettlement. However, some have argued that because of lack of resources settler families have only achieved a fraction of land utilisation practised by former commercial farmers. Also because most of them are poor there is less animals per unit area compared to an average communal area. Thus arguments that resettlement invariably leads to land degradation are baseless. This chapter seeks to review the environmental impacts of the fast track land reform on the biophysical environment. Other aspects of the environment i.e. socioeconomic have been addressed elsewhere in this volume. This chapter begins with a quick synopsis of the impact of the programme on land cover (vegetation), soils and water. It also looks at issues of the institutional set up for the management of natural resources in the resettlement areas and concludes by recommending some framework for improving the management of natural resources in resettlement areas.Friedrich Ebert Stiftung Foundation

Environmental Impact Assessment

Most developing nations have embarked on a path to rapid economic growth. This has meant soliciting for many development projects which are meant to bring rewards: in increased industrial productivity. The hope is that these projects will increase the incomes of the people and cut down on unemployment. However past experiences have shown that these major development projects created with the aim of producing enormous socio-economic benefits, have also produced adverse environmental impacts. Some of these impacts are irreversible and the damage to the environment has been total. So in order to minimize the unintended negative externalities of these projects on the environment, there has to be some means of identifying the impacts of projects before they are embarked upon so that any adverse effects which the projects may produce on: the environment can be rectified or an alternative method which docs not damage the environment is worked out:. Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is the technique used to identify the likely impacts of a development project on the environment. Ideally this activity of EIA should be carried out at the early planning stages of projects. When carried out effectively, it will help to identify the probable facets of environmental degradation which will be due to the development activities. This technique provides the decision-makers with an insight into the environmental implications of proposed development projects and their alternatives. It will provide the decision maker with information on the environmental, health, and socio-economic impacts of an intended development project. The implication is that this technique should be an integral part of development plans and is an important decision making tool for all projects if damage to the environment is to be avoided. This paper is meant to acquaint students with EIA as a decision making tool in development planning. It covers all aspects relating to EIA activities from the objectives and scope of EIA; EIA methods; institutional set-up ; and the Zimbabwe situation as far as this activity is concerned. The environment in this paper is taken to mean the set of conditions surrounding an individual or event. These conditions could be physical, biological or socioeconomic in nature. The paper focuses on the technique used to identify impacts of development projects on these various facets of the environment. Those in the planning profession, decision makers and project planners will find this paper useful