Environmental Stewardship

Environmental Stewardship

ENVIRONMENT IMPACT ASSESSMENT

An Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is an assessment of the possible impact, positive or negative, that forest activities may have on the natural environment. The International Association for Impact Assessment (IAIA) defines an environmental impact assessment as "the process of identifying, predicting, evaluating and mitigating the biophysical, social, and other relevant effects of development proposals prior to major decisions being taken and commitments made.” It can also be referred to as an advance assessment of the likely environmental impact of a planned development, together with opinions of people and interest groups. The information gathered is passed on to planners and decision-makers to make detailed studies, which predict the effects of a development project on the environment. They also provide plans for the mitigation of the adverse impacts. Reference can be made to “EIA Guidelines for Timber Harvesting in Natural Forests” (FRIM 1995). A screening matrix or tabular statements specifying planned activities, their potential impacts which require mitigating measures, can be adopted.

EIA

EIA Defined

An EIA process should include :
(a) identification of potentially significant environmental impacts such as steep topography, and habitat requirements of endangered species based on the integrated inventory.
(b) description of options for mitigating environmental impacts.
(c) identification of mitigation measures to be implemented such as functional zoning to identify protection and production areas, limitations on harvesting activities or subscribing of techniques to reduce impact of harvesting.
Following the assessment of environmental and social impacts and incorporation of measures for mitigating the identified impacts into the management plan, the management can identify the net production area and existing estimated volumes of the PFE or forest area (MC&I 6.1). Scheduling the harvesting of compartments (or logging blocks) within the net production area should be based on volume control within each compartment (or logging block) to meet the annual allowable cut for the PFE. (MC&I 10.1).
Regular monitoring of activities and performance within KPKKT are undertaken at a level appropriate to the scale and impact of management operations, and relative to the complexity of the related environmental, social and economic circumstances. The results of regular monitoring are fed back into the management planning process. Monitoring and survey procedures may be simple and based on easily obtained information. Records of all monitoring activities are be kept. Monitoring parameters include, where appropriate:

  1. Yield of forest products harvested.
  2. The regeneration, growth rates and mortality of forest species.
  3. Composition and observed changes in the flora and fauna.
  4. Environmental and social impacts of management operations.
  5. Effects of operational activities on soil conditions.
  6. Effects of operational activities on quality and quantity of the water resource.
  7. Costs, revenue and productivity of forest operations.
  8. Fire, disease and pests.
  9. Activities of contractors and subcontractors.
The MC&I require an on-going monitoring of the environmental effects of forest management particularly with respect to soil erosion and water quality (MC&I 22.3). There is also a requirement for monitoring environmental impact which should include changes in bio-diversity and other ecological processes due to forest management operations (MC&I 19.4).