Published: 2012-06-25
Key Benefits:
ARRANGEMENT OF SECTIONS
SECTION
PART I
Preliminary
1. Short title
2. Interpretation
3. Application of Act
4. Requirements to undertake an activity
5. Ensuring issuance of authorisation
PART II
Preparation of Environmental Impact Assessment Documentation
6. Requirements for authorisation
7. Public participation and scoping exercise
8. Terms of reference
9. Environmental assessment and statement
PART III
Review Process of Environmental Impact Statement
10. Public review of statement
11. Conduct of public hearing
12. Approval of statement
13. Appeals
PART IV
Authorisation of a Statement
14. Validity of an authorisation
15. Revocation or modification of authorisation
16. Transfer of authorisation
17. Decision making by competent authority
PART V
Post Environmental Impact Assessment of Implemented Activities
18. Monitoring programme and evaluation report
19. Environmental audit by competent authority
PART VI
Establishment, Management and Functions of Board
20. Establishment of Board
21. Seal of Board
22. Membership of Board
23. Association to elect members
24. Powers and functions of Board
25. Tenure of office of member
26. Minister's power to appoint members required to be elected
27. Disqualification, removal and resignation
28. Filling of vacancies
29. Committees of Board
30. Election of Chairperson and Vice Chairperson
31. Meeting of Board
32. Meetings of committees of Board
33. Disclosure of interest
34. Validity of decisions and acts of Board
35. Reports to the Minister
PART VII
Executive Secretary, Registration and Certification
36. Executive Secretary, etc.
37. Registration
38. Register
39. Procedures for registration
40. Certificate of practice
41. Registration of non-residents
42. Refusal to register
43. Suspension of registration
44. Removal from the register
45. Restoration of name to the register
46. Appeal against refusal to register, etc.
47. Return of practising certificate to Executive Secretary
48. Register to be prima facie evidence
49. Offences in connection with the register
PART VIII
Disciplinary and other Inquiry
50. Inquiries by Board
51. Disregard of summons, etc.
52. Powers of Board at inquiry
53. Disciplinary powers of Board
54. Practitioner becoming unfit to practise
55. Appeal against decision of Board at inquiry
56. Publication of outcome of proceedings
PART IX
Financial Provisions
57. Revenues of Board
58. Financial year
59. Accounts and audit
60. Annual report
PART X
Miscellaneous
61. Enforcement of provisions
62. Public documents and register
63. Confidentiality
64. Conflict of interest by practitioner
65. Protection from personal liability
66. Powers of entry
67. Powers to require information
68. Trans-boundary environmental impact
69. Effect of registration
70. Offence and penalty
71. Exemptions
72. General penalty
73. Regulations
74. Repeal of Cap. 65:07
75. Transitional provisions
76. Act to bind State
Act 6, 2005,
Act 10, 2011,
S.I. 57, 2012.
An Act to provide for environmental impact assessment to be used to assess the potential effects of planned developmental activities; to determine and to provide mitigation measures for effects of such activities as may have a significant adverse impact on the environment; to put in place a monitoring process and evaluation of the environmental impacts of implemented activities and to provide for matters incidental to the foregoing.
[Date of Commencement: 25th June, 2012]
1. Short title
This Act may be cited as the Environmental Assessment Act.
In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires -
"activity" includes a project, programme, plan or policy;
"Association" means a body registered under the Societies Act, which adequately demonstrates to the Minister that it is representative of the majority of Environmental Assessment Practitioners practising in Botswana at any given time;
"Board" means the Environmental Assessment Practitioners Board established under section 20 of the Act;
"Chairperson" means the Chairperson of the Board;
"committee" means a committee of the Board;
"competent authority", in relation to an activity under this Act, means the Department of Environmental Affairs;
"developer" means a person intending or planning to undertake a new activity or repair or extend an existing activity;
"Director" means the Director responsible for environmental affairs;
"environment" includes the physical, ecological, archaeological, aesthetic, cultural, economic, institutional, human health and social aspects of the surroundings of a person;
"environmental audit" means work done to identify and evaluate compliance of the statement and the residual environmental impact of an existing activity, the effectiveness of mitigation measures and the functioning of monitoring mechanisms;
"environmental impact" means any positive or negative effects caused by an activity on the environment;
"environmental impact assessment" means the process and procedure for evaluating and predicting the likely environmental impact of a proposed activity;
"evaluation report" means a report on studies carried out to ensure that environmental considerations are taken into account when an activity is implemented;
"local authority" includes a land board;
"member" means a member of the Board elected, appointed or nominated under section 22;
"mitigation measures" means the reduction or control of the adverse environmental impact of an activity and includes restitution for any damage to the environment caused by such activity through engineering works, technological improvements, management measures or compensation to ameliorate any loss suffered by a person;
"practitioner" means an Environmental Assessment Practitioner registered under section 37;
"project brief" means a description of the likely environmental impact of an activity provided by the applicant as part of the application;
"register" means a register of practitioners established under section 38;
"relevant technical department" means a government department or local authority responsible for monitoring an activity undertaken under this Act, by virtue of that department or local authority having the necessary technical expertise to do so;
"scoping" means consultations with concerned government departments, local authorities, non-governmental organisations, members of the public and any other interested persons, to determine the extent of the likely environmental impact of a proposed activity;
"statement" means a report of the environmental assessment study;
"strategic environmental assessment" means a process for evaluating the environmental consequences of proposed policy, plan or programme initiatives in order to ensure that they are fully included and appropriately addressed at the earliest stage of decision making, on par with economic and social considerations;
"threshold", in relation to an environmental impact assessment of an activity, means a measurable level or limit of an output resulting from the operation of a proposed activity indicative of the activity's environmental impact; and
"terms of reference" means a document which details the main environmental issues which must be addressed in an environmental impact study.
(1) This Act applies to the activities in respect of which the Minister may prescribe by regulations.
(2) Regulations made pursuant to subsection (1) shall prescribe -
(a) a list of activities which are likely to cause significant adverse effects on the environment, or the locations that may be environmentally sensitive, in respect of which a statement shall be mandatory;
(b) threshold determinations of environmental impact assessment with respect to the activities prescribed under paragraph (a); and
(c) criteria which shall be used to determine the likely effects of a proposed activity in order to further determine whether or not a statement is required for the activity.
(3) The Minister may, in writing, upon application for exemption by a person implementing an activity referred to under subsection (2), exempt the activity from the provisions of this Act.
4. Requirements to undertake an activity
(1) No person shall undertake or implement an activity prescribed under section 3 unless -
(a) such person has applied to a licensing authority for authorisation to undertake such activity and authorisation has been issued under section 12; and
(b) the environmental impact of the proposed activity is fully taken into account in accordance with the provisions of this Act.
(2) Any person who undertakes or implements an activity in contravention of subsection (1) commits an offence and is liable to a fine not exceeding P100 000, or to a term of imprisonment not exceeding five years, or to both.
(3) A person who contravenes subsection (1) shall rehabilitate the area affected by the adverse environmental impact of the implemented activity.
(4) In this section, "rehabilitate" means the reinstatement or restoration to a normal or functional environmental state.
(5) A person who fails to rehabilitate the area referred to under subsection (3) commits an offence and is liable to a fine not exceeding P1 000 000, or to a term of imprisonment not exceeding 15 years, or to both.
5. Ensuring issuance of authorisation
(1) A licensing authority shall, before issuing a permit, licence, consent or approval to any person who has applied to implement an activity prescribed under section 3, ensure that authorisation has been issued for the proposed activity in accordance with this Act.
(2) In this section, "licensing authority" means any authority vested with the responsibility of issuing permits, licences, consent or approval for any of the activities prescribed under section 3.