A comparative analysis of environmental impact assessment law and planning practice in the Commonwealth Caribbean

• Author: Christine Toppin-Allahar
• Position: Attomey-at-Law, Member of the Trinidad & Tobago Society of Planners and Part-time Lecturer at the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, Trinidad
• Pages: 1-24

A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS

OF ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT

ASSESSMENT LAW AND

PLANNING PRACTICE IN THE

COMMONWEALTH CARIBBEAN*

CHRISTINE

TOPPIN-ALLAHAR**

Introduction

Principle 17 of the Rio

Declaration

on Environment and Development adopted

at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development

(UNCED) in 1992, provides that -

"Environmental impact assessment

as a

national instrument

shall

be undertaken

for proposed activities that are likely to have a significant adverse effect on the

environment and are subject to a decision of a competent national authority."

Small Island Developing States (SIDS) were recognised at UNCED in

Agenda 21 (Chapter 17-G) as "a special case for both environment and

development". The Programme of Action for Small Island Developing States

adopted at the follow-up Global Conference on Sustainable Development in

Small Island Developing States held in Barbados in 1994, identifies the need

for national action to -

"Develop appropriate national. . . and local environmental regulations which

reflect the needs and incorporate the principles of sustainability, create appro-

priate environmental standards and

procedures,

and ensure their integration into

national planning instruments and development projects at an early stage in the

This

is an edited version of a paper presented at the Trinidad

&

Tobago Society of Planners'

25

Anniversary and UWI Graduate Planning & Development Programme's 5th Anniversary

Conference:

"Thirty

Years

of

Planning

in

Trinidad

&

Tobago,"

held on 9-10 November,

2000.

**Attomey-at-Law,

Member of the Trinidad & Tobago Society of Planners and Part-time

Lecturer

at the University of the West

Indies,

St. Augustine, Trinidad.

design process, including specific legislation for appropriate environmental

impact assessment for both

public

and private sector development."1

As defined by the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP), Envi-

ronmental Impact Assessment (EIA) means "an examination, analysis and

assessment of planned activities with a view to ensuring environmentally

sound and sustainable

development."2

'The practice of planning in the Com-

monwealth Caribbean

has

been governed historically

by

legislation concerned

with the "use and development of land" under which most development

projects are subject to a decision of a competent national authority- Similar

legislation has been recognised elsewhere in the Commonwealth (notably in

England, from which

the

type of planning legislation

in

force

in the

Common-

wealth Caribbean is derived) as the most suitable vehicle for the introduction

of EIA regulations. This approach has also been adopted in some countries

in the Commonwealth Caribbean, specifically Barbados and the OECS

countries.

However, in the four largest countries in the region, Jamaica, Belize,

Guyana and Trinidad & Tobago, provision for EIAs has been incorporated

into new environmental

framework

legislation enacted during

the

1990s.3

The

EIA provisions of these

laws

are summarized in

the

accompanying

matrix,

"A

Comparative Analysis of Existing EIA Legislation in the Commonwealth

Caribbean." Express reference

was also

made to

EIAs in

earlier environmental

framework legislation adopted by St. Kitts-Nevis in 1987.4 In the case of

Trinidad & Tobago, the enactment of the relevant legislation displaced

informal EIA requirements previously introduced administratively as an

element of the development control process under existing planning legisla-

tion

Undertaking EIAs can be a costly and time-consuming process. Added to

a regulatory system for land development control which is widely perceived

in the region as being anti-development in effect (if not in philosophy), there

is a real risk that EIA requirements may be seen as another impediment to

development rather than a technique for project evaluation which is useful in

1 Part

X:

''National Institutions and Administrative Capacity" A(vi).

2 Goals and

Principles

of

Environmental Impact

Assessment,

adopted by decision 14/25 of the

Governing Council of UNEP,

17

June 1987.

3 Natural Resources Conservation Authority Act 1991 [No+9 of

1991,

Jamaica];

Environmental Protection Act 1992 [No.22 of 1992, Belize); Environmental Protection

Act 1996 [No.11 of 1996, Guyana]; Environmental Management Act 1995 [No.3 of 1995

(re-enacted as No.

1

of

2000),

Trinidad

&

Tobago).

4 National Conservation and Environmental Protection Act [No.5 of 1987, Saint

Christopher and Nevis].