Business Strategy and the Environment, Vol. 5, 119-121(1996)

BOOK REVIEWS

GUIDELINES FOR BASELINE ECOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT by the Institute of Environmental Assessment, 1995. E & F.N. Spon, xii + 142 pp, €29.95 (hbk). ISBN 0 419 20510 1

I have mixed feelings about this book, partly based on the content and the intended audience(@, and especially based on the format, style and price. But first things first.

A formal requirement for environmental impact assessment (EIA) has been with us since 1988, and aside from a few scattered and embryonic guidelines emerging from some government departments and agencies, the UK Government has consistently resisted calls that official, authoritative and comprehensive guidelines should be produced to assist developers, their staff and consultants, and the regulatory and development control agencies (especially local government), in moving beyond the EU Directive and the UK Regulations to the actual practice of EIA. Instead, voluntary and professional groups, notably the Institute of Environmental Assess- ment, have responded to the evidence of variable and sometimes appalling practices in EIA, leading to envir- onmental statements of variable and often low quality, by commissioning sets of guidelines (a companion book to this covers Guidelines for Landscape and Visual Impact Assessment).

It is important to note that these ecological guidelines concern only baseline assessment - that is, surveys of sites to establish the flora and fauna present and their potential significance and value, but they provide no guidance on actually predicting, assessing or mitigating the impacts which different developments may cause. Prepared by a diverse, expert and authoritative working party, the guidelines represent a consensus on the baseline data needed for EIA and stress the importance of scoping, consultation and access to existing data. Simple baseline survey techniques are outlined, with guidance on when the results from these might trigger more detailed studies; for the latter, the text offers sound guidance on what needs to be done, and when and where, but very little on how to do it, for which the reader must turn to other publications where specific techniques can be found (the comprehensive list of references runs to 16 pages). Developers and their project managers will have a special interest in judging the amount of baseline survey work needed, but there is, of course, an inherent problem in the 'trigger' idea: the guidelines often refer to the trigger as the presence of a rare species, but the first-stage habitat survey will rarely reveal the rarity.

Thus far the guidelines are excellent and can be commended as a welcome addition to the literature and

CCC 0964-4733/96/02011943 0 1996 by John Wiley Q Sons, Ltd. and ERP Environment

guidance available on EIA. But the core text (including references) occupies only 73 of the 142, pages; the page layout leaves a lot of blank paper (and pages), at least seven pages are occupied by colour photographs and maps (the photographs are pretty, but otherwise point- less) and I estimate that the essence of the guidelines could be accommodated in no more than 50 pages. At €29.95, or 60 pence per page, that is expensive by any standard. What of the other pages? These are appendices which list potential consultees, information sources, protected species and habitats, professional institutes and so on. Aside from the fact that several are partial, many will date quickly and most are widely available elsewhere; my main complaint is that without more interpretation and analysis, some of the lists are of very limited value to the intended audience; they are lists and nothing more. On presentation, I question the decision (whether by the Institute or the publisher, or both) that an expensive hardback, padded out with indigestible lists, is the correct format for best-practice guidelines intended for a wide audience and which is intended to be updated on a regular basis.

Finally, what of the target audiences, declared as project managers, competent authorities and professional ecologists? For project managers and (some) competent authorities, (parts of) the core guidelines are useful and perhaps essential reading, especially when engaged in first planning a project and any necessary EIA, or in scoping, or in appointing professional ecologists, or in evaluating an environmental statement; the detailed references and the appendices are unlikely to be very useful (and will date quickly). For professional ecologists, they gather into one accessible place information which is diverse and scattered and they provide a valuable overview which is balanced and authoritative, but which otherwise should be familiar. They provide no substitute, nor was that the intention, for expertise, experience and professional competence.

Overall these guidelines deserve a guarded welcome; the concept is excellent, the execution and core material is first class, but the overall content is of variable utility and the packaging is inappropriate and outrageously priced.

John Benson, Department of Town and Country Planning,

University of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK

GUIDE TO LOCAL ENVIRONMENTAL AUDITING edited by Hugh Barton and Noel Bruder, 1995. Earthscan, xvi + 370 pp, €18.95 (pbk). ISBN 1 85383 234 0

Think globally, act locally is the watchword of environ- mental management and this book presents a compre- hensive guide as to how you can audit and monitor the

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