Technical Review Guidelines for Environmental Impact Assessments in the Tourism, Energy and Mining Sectors

With the support of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), EPA coordinated a regional collaborative process with Central America and Dominican Republic Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR) partners to develop Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Technical Review Guidelines for three sectors identified as priorities by our regional partners: energy, mining and tourism.

The guidelines are a product of regional experts in EIA and the relevant sectors, drawing upon existing materials from within and outside these countries and from international organizations. The guidelines aim to strengthen Environmental Impact Assessment of proposed projects undergoing review by government officials, non-governmental organizations and the general public throughout the life of the projects. The Guidelines are intended to help users:

identify, avoid, prevent and/or mitigate potential adverse impacts and
increase potential beneficial impacts.

These guidelines do not represent the policies, practices or requirements of any one country or organization.

Each EIA Technical Review Guideline consists of the following components:

Volume 1 contains the guidelines which track with internationally recognized elements of environmental impact assessment with a glossary and references.
Volume 1, Part 2 contains example Terms of Reference cross-linked to Volumes 1 and 2 for different types of mining, energy, and/or tourism projects respectively for use by the countries as they prepare their own EIA program requirements.
Volume 2 contains Appendices with detailed information on the applicable sector, requirements and standards, predictive tools, and international codes.

View and Print EIA Technical Review Guidelines

Mining Sector: Non‐Metal and Metal Mining (English and Spanish)
Tourism Sector: Tourism-Related Projects (English and Spanish)
Energy Sector: Energy Generation and Transmission (English and Spanish)

Contacts

For additional information on EPA's work with Latin America and the Caribbean, contact:

Cam Hill-Macon

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Office of International and Tribal Affairs (2670R)

1200 Pennsylvania Ave., NW

Washington, DC 20460

E-mail: hill-macon.cam@epa.gov

(202) 564-6408