Environmental impact management and planning: - Norway

The identification of environmental attributes, geographical areas and activities, as well asenvironmental attributes and geographical areas for off-road recreational drivingPurpose: To simplify procedures and safeguard sensitiveareas by identifying environmental attributes, areas andactivities.OverviewSection 24(2)(b) of NEMA makes provision for theidentification of sensitive geographical areas in whichspecified activities would require an environmentalauthorisation in terms of the EIA regulations. Theidentification of such areas has to be based on theenvironmental attributes of the area, which means thatdifferent types of geographical areas, based on differentcombinations of environmental attributes, were identified.This concept creates a matrix of identified geographicalareas based on environmental attributes that are linked tospecified activities.ProgressThe project was initiated in 2008 with the followingobjectives:• Identify sensitive environmental attributes (examples ofattributes that were used to identify the geographicalareas, including threatened ecosystems, indigenousforests, important topographical features, worldheritage sites, national and provincial parks andreserves, and important wetlands).• Identify sensitive areas based on these attributes(17 geographical areas with a unique set of specifiedactivities were identified).• Identify activities additional to the existing NEMA EIAregulations: activities that require environmentalauthorisation in the identified sensitive areas, suchas the construction of billboards, masts, tourismfacilities, roads and tracks, and aquaculture facilities(these activities vary according to the specific uniquecharacteristics of each area, such as a uniquetopographical feature).The project was concluded in 2009. The end productand methodology are used in a similar process to identifysensitive geographical areas and activities at provinciallevel.BenefitsThe project will ensure that sensitive geographical areasare identified, resulting in a proactive approach to impactmanagement, the identification of development activities16that may have a significant detrimental environmentalimpact in sensitive geographical areas and a reductionof the current number of listed activities that requireenvironmental authorisation in areas that can be regardedas non-sensitive to a particular activity.Possible further workThe geographical areas identified in Listing Notice 3 shouldbe captured in a GIS format for easy access by potentialapplicants to:• determine whether their proposed activity requires anenvironmental authorisation;• see why the particular area was declared a sensitivegeographical area; and• determine what other plans, such as conservationplans, EMFs and policies, are applicable to the specificarea and must be considered in the application.