Environmental Assessments: EIA process is not red tape

WWF-Malaysia views with concern the recommendation made by the Special Task Force to Facilitate Business (Pemudah) that the approval of environmental impact assessments (EIAs) be shortened from three months to five weeks in an effort to improve the public delivery system.

Although it is not entirely clear how the quicker timeframe for approval will be accommodated, WWF-Malaysia is fearful that this move will compromise public participation in the EIA process.

In Peninsular Malaysia, EIAs have been divided into Preliminary EIAs and Detailed EIAs.

Currently, public participation is only solicited for Detailed EIAs, and a month is given for the public to review EIA reports in public offices during office hours.

EIAs have long been recognised as an essential planning tool for effective environmental management.

This ensures that the importance of the predicted impacts and the measures for mitigating them are properly understood by the public, stakeholders and the relevant authorities before a decision is made.

Public participation is an integral part of the EIA process of a proposed project and brings numerous benefits.

Well-planned and timely public participation and consultation not only contributes to the successful design of the project but also enhances the effectiveness of the EIA process itself.

The public can provide valuable information. Therefore, the public’s views and opinions should be taken into account in the final decision.

Public participation also ensures that the EIA process is open and transparent and based on justifiable analyses.

Furthermore, the importance of fostering increased public participation in environmental decision-making has been recognised at the international level through numerous international environmental treaties, many of which Malaysia is a party to.

The EIA process must not be viewed as red tape that hinders a project.

There are numerous benefits of conducting an EIA at the planning stage, among which is to arrive at best practice prediction and measures to mitigate a project’s adverse effects.

WWF-Malaysia is of the opinion that rather than looking into minimising the so-called red tape of the EIA process, efforts should be made to address inherent weaknesses in the current system which undermines the whole process.

One glaring weakness is that, in reality, a project is designed and the site is predetermined and approved by the authorities even before an EIA is commissioned.

Therefore, EIAs which are consequently prepared normally seek to justify the pre-chosen option and site rather than evaluating all design and site options and recommending the option which will cause the least impact.

Recently, the Department of Environment has taken steps to improve the EIA process and these include posting summaries of Detailed EIAs on the department’s website and introducing a registration scheme for EIA consultants.

WWF-Malaysia welcomes these initiatives and hopes that more positive steps are taken to make the EIA process more robust.

This will include making the terms of reference for EIAs and Preliminary EIAs available to the public for review, and institutionalising public participation in the Environmental Quality Act 1974.