If you have been paying attention recently, the terms EBS, EIA or EMP may have come across your feeds. Many Bahamians don’t actually know what these are and what is the difference between them or how they affect business, development, or sustainability in the Bahamas. Read on for a brief introduction and then follow the link to see some of the documents relevant to the Bahamas.

What are they?

EBS An Environmental Baseline Study

EBS An Environmental Baseline Study is an assessment of what is around the location that will be the target of the proposed activity. This should include People, Places, Things and Wildlife. People and Wildlife are fairly self explanatory, but some of the places and things you need to include may be archaeological sites, groundwater resources, Historically or culturally important sites. Of course, how broad the “environment” is may depend on the activity and potential size of the impact. Environmental Consultants need to balance the effort to include every potential environmental element with the capacity for effective evaluation and focus on the most important impacts.

EIA An Environmental Impact Assessment

An Environmental Impact Assessment establishes the potential effect of the action on the environmental elements identified in the Baseline Study. Will People gain jobs, or lose business opportunities, will their health or well-being be affected? May an historic site be damaged, or will increased traffic make archaeological and natural sites prone to poaching and theft? Will native plants be removed and will native fish and other wildlife leave the area during construction disturbance or permanently never to return? The authors of these assessments balance the positive benefits of the project with the negative impacts to the landscape and society.

EMP An Environmental Management Plan

An Environmental Management Plan establishes monitoring and management protocols for the environmental elements and impacts that were identified in the other two documents. They include the responses to various negative environmental impacts and how they are avoided, reported if they occur, and the steps that will be taken to respond to the impacts.

Legislation

In the Bahamas several laws affect the development of these documents. Although the legal environment evolves over time, here are some of the Bahamian laws that need to be considered in the EIA development process.

The Environmental Planning and Protection Act 2019 establishes the Department of Environmental Planning and Protection (DEPP) and is sometimes referred to as the Department of Environmental Planning and Protection Act. Some authors often invert the words to Protection and Planning. It establishes the positions of the director, deputy director and assistant directors of the DEPP. It also establishes formal legal definitions of EIA, EMP and other important terms under the act.

The Environmental Planning and Protection (Extension of Application) Order 2020 establishes the procedures for proposed projects. It outlines Certificates of Environmental Clearance, Monitoring and Compliance Responsibilities of the Project Proponent and the DEPP. It mandates the creation of a DEPP website and the publication of the EIA documents by the director (section 17). It also establishes the creation of an environmental performance bond up to 5 percent of the project value (section 16).

The Ministry of Environment Act 2019 Establishes the Ministry of the Environment and its functions and empowers the Minister and makes them a Corporation sole so they can sue and be sued and acquire, hold and lease property. The act also places departments of Forestry, GIS Public Parks and Beaches, Environmental Health Services and the body responsible for scientific research, EIA review and multilateral environmental agreements under this ministry. The act establishes an Environmental Administration Fund which the Minister is to administer and control which is to hold any environmental performance bonds. The Environmental Trust Fund is also established under this act and the constitution of the Board of the Environmental Trust Fund the members of the board may receive remuneration.

Environmental document database.

The Science and Perspective Environmental Document Database is a work in progress. anyone can view the entries here and I appreciate those that would like to direct me to any new EBS, EIA or EMP documents published in the future.