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When to apply Environmental Impact Assessment?
In many countries the legal framework for performing an EIA have been well established and the law will prescribe in which situation a project is subject to performing an EIA. In most cases this will be for larger projects like e.g. construction of harbours, dams, pipelines and land reclamation projects. Also, activities in highly vulnerable and biodivers areas may be subject to an EIA. At the start of the present project, there was no legal framework in Cameroon for performing an EIA and Community Forestry was not subject to performing an EIA.
Still, it was anticipated that applying an EIA on Community Forestry plans in Cameroon could help to know the relative impacts of conservation efforts and livelihood activities on the forest, and to use this knowledge to make better Forest Management Plans. Since the forests in the Cameroon Mountains contain such an exceptional variety of rare and endemic species of plants and wildlife, any activity with potential impacts on this biodiversity could benefit from an EIA. As the EIA process is a participatory process, it will help to raise awareness of environmental issues related to a Community Forest application and can increase the local support for the conservation activities when results of the EIA are incorporated in the final Community Forest Simple Management Plan.
The legal situation in Cameroon changed on February 23 2005, when law No. 2005/0577 was passed that lays out the procedure for performing an Environmental Impact Assessment in Cameroon. This law was followed by Arręte No. 0069/MINEP of March 8, 2005, which describes those activities in Cameroon that are subject to performing an EIA. According to this law, Community Forestry is an activity that must be evaluated in an EIA. Therefore, as of February 2005 any new application for a Community Forest in Cameroon is subject to performing an EIA.
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