Site selection and carrying capacity in Mediterranean ... - FAO Sipam

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8.4.2 Environmental criteria for site selection: eia and monitoring
Environmental issues have increasingly become a priority on the public agenda during the last thirty
years. Essentially, the greater awareness of environmental protection has been accompanied by the
development of proactive tools designed to plan and guarantee such protection.
The Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) procedure appears to be accepted and used worldwide,
although it varies widely in its content, scope, implementation, etc. The EIA has been defined as “the
process of identifying, predicting, evaluating and mitigating the biophysical, social, and other relevant
effects of development proposals prior to major decisions being taken and commitments made”
(IAIA, 1999). At the EU level, the EIA was first introduced through a Directive in 1985 35 . In the
Mediterranean, the EIA process is operative in all the countries surveyed, being mandatory in 79% of
them (all but Albania, Egypt and Montenegro).
Figure 18 - EIA programs in the Mediterranean
80%
EIA PROGRAMS: COMPULSORY
Voluntary Mandatory
The FAO has carried out specific research on EIA and monitoring in aquaculture 36 , identifying as
major strengths and weaknesses: (i) the difficulty of addressing the cumulative impacts of many
small-scale developments through conventional EIA; (ii) the lack of environmental objectives and
standards – especially suited to the local context – against which to assess impacts and design
mitigation; (iii) the excessive scope and lack of focus on key issues of much EIA and monitoring
activities; (iv) the lack of institutions and capacity to coordinate, manage, implement and review EIA,
monitoring and environmental management tools more generally; (v) the lack of engagement and trust
between regulators and farmers; (vi) limited participation or engagement of key stakeholders; (vii) or
where this does take place, poor management and inadequate conflict resolution; (viii) the lack of
effective monitoring, analysis and feedback into sector management, as well as into management of
individual farms, or groups/clusters of farms (FAO, 2009b).
The conclusions of the study by FAO pointed to monitoring as a key step to ensure effective
environmental management of aquaculture; therefore, there is a need for integration of both EIA and
monitoring within aquaculture policies.
35 Council Directive 85/337/EEC of 27 June 1985 on the assessment of the effects of certain public and private projects on
the environment [EIA Directive (85/337/EEC], amended by Council Directive 97/11/EC of 3 March 1997 amending
Directive 85/337/EEC on the assessment of the effects of certain public and private projects on the environment. A
Consolidated Directive is available online at http://eurlex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CONSLEG:1985L0337:20030625:EN:PDF
36 For more details see references in FAO (2009).
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