Indigenous Participation In Commonwealth Environmental Impact Assessment

Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) has become a vital management tool worldwide. EIA is a means of evaluating the likely consequences of a proposed major action which will significantly affect the environment, before that action is taken.This new edition of Wood's key text provides an authoritative, international review of environmental impact assessment, comparing systems used in the UK, USA, the Netherlands, Canada, the Commonwealth of Australia and New Zealand and South Africa.

This book is the first significant international attempt to outline and analyze how social assessment has been integrated within natural resource management institutions to date. In doing so, it focuses on contemporary Australian and New Zealand experiences, and relates these back to the international context. Social Assessment in Natural Resource Management Institutionsprovides practical guidance for a wide range of planners, managers and stakeholders striving for better integration of social issues. The lessons derived are equally relevant to national, provincial, regional and local governance structures, international agencies, corporations, and community-based non-government organizations.

This book addresses the nature, purpose and processes associated with social impact analysis. Because resource development projects occur in human as well as ecological environments, stakeholders - landowners, companies and governments - are compelled to ensure that the benefits of any project are maximized while the negative risks are minimized. Achieving such objectives means implementing programs which monitor and evaluate the ongoing effects of a project on the social and cultural lives of the impacted populace. This book aims to provide a teaching and training resource for students, social scientists (anthropologists, sociologists, human geographers, environmentalists, engineers, etc.) and indigenous personnel and operators who are tasked with community affairs programs in those countries where resource development projects are implemented. The constituent chapters provide how-to guides and frameworks that are generously illustrated with case studies drawn variously from North America and the Asia-Pacific region. Topics addressed include Legal Frameworks and Compliance Procedures, Social Mapping, Environmental Reports, Social and Economic Impact Studies, Social Monitoring Techniques, Project Development, Statistical Packages and Report Production.This book is unique in so far as it seeks to prioritize application over theory. Moreover, it is the first training resource that is sensitive to non-western indigenes' need to assimilate and apply skills engendered by Western countries.

Rethinking Resource Management offers students and practitioners in resource management a sophisticated and convincing framework for rethinking the dominant approaches to resource management in a complex world.