USAID Environmental Procedures

EA Training Course

2USAID Procedures

Objectives of this Module

Explain the regulations; Help you understand how regulations affect

the design and implementation process; Assist you in obtaining environmental

clearances; Apply environmental assessment principles

based on USAID procedures; Support decentralization of responsibility for

environmental review and decision-making.

EA Training Course

3USAID Procedures

USAID Environmental Policy and Regulations

USAID’s environmental regulations contained in 22 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 216 -- commonly referred to as Reg. 16:

Identify and consider, with host country, environmental consequences prior to making decisions;

Ensure that appropriate environmental safeguards are adopted;

EA Training Course

4USAID Procedures

Assist developing countries in evaluating environmental effects of development strategies and activities;

Identify environmental impacts of USAID actions; Define environmental limiting factors that

constrain development; Identify and carry out activities that “assist in

restoring the renewable resource base on which sustained development depends.”

EA Training Course

5USAID Procedures

The Purpose of Reg. 16

Implement regulations consistent with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and Executive Order 12114.

Ensure integration of environmental factors and values into the USAID decision-making process.

Assign responsibility for assessing environmental effects of USAID actions.

EA Training Course

6USAID Procedures

Reg. 16 Applies to:

All new USAID programs or activities. Substantive amendments or extensions to

ongoing activities with: New components; A significant expansion; Imported commodities in addition to those in the

original environmental review process; Unforeseen adverse impacts that have occurred in

original activity.

EA Training Course

7USAID Procedures

Environmental Review & USAID Design Process

Environmental Review:

Strengthens activity proposals. Aids...is not an obstacle to project

design. Identifies in advance “reasonably

foreseeable impacts.”

EA Training Course

8USAID Procedures

Summary of Environmental Procedures

Prepare an Initial environmental Examination (IEE) to make threshold determination:

A negative determination means “no” significant impact.

A positive determination means “yes” significant impact.

A deferred determination applies to sub-activities where information is still insufficient and postpones analysis.

"A significant impact" does “significant harm to the environment.”

EA Training Course

9USAID Procedures

Activities with only beneficial impacts receive a negative determination.

Activities with benefits and significant harm to the environment receive a positive determination, because harm to the environment requires mitigation.

EA Training Course

10USAID Procedures

Some activities are exempt or excluded:

Exemptions may be for activities responding to emergencies, such as famine relief.

Exclusions apply to activities considered very unlikely to have significant impacts.

These activity types are eligible for "categorical exclusion," i.e., no IEE needed.

EA Training Course

11USAID Procedures

Reg. 16 also lists specific activities expected to have significant impacts:

Comprehensive analysis, the Environmental Assessment or EA, is typically required.

An IEE is often done to determine if EA is needed.

EA Training Course

12USAID Procedures

The Full Reg.16 Approach

Results Framework, Strategic ObjectiveConcept Paper or Proposal

Documented Activity, Results Package, or Grant/Subgrant(detailed description of proposed program or project)

Exemptionper 22 CFR Part

216.2(b)

CategoricalExclusionper 22 CFR Part

216.2(c)

EnvironmentalAssessment (EA) or

Environmental ImpactStatement (EIS)

Requiredper 22 CFR Part 216.2(d)

InitialEnvironmental

Examination (IEE)Required

Apply Reg. 16 Classifications: See 22 CFR Part 216

Prepare an IEE

EA Training Course

13USAID Procedures

Prepare IEE and Make Threshold Decision

DeferralPositive Determination

(Significant Impact)Negative Determination

(No Major Impact)

EA or EIS

** Assuming USAID decides to fund

Conduct IEE forActivities and Program

ComponentsThreshold Decision

PROCEED WITH ACTIVITYOR PROGRAM AS PROPOSED

PROCEED WITH ACTIVITY OR PROGRAMSUBJECT TO CONDITIONS**

(E..G. MONITORING OR MITIGATION)

Environmental Review ofSubgrant Activities**

withoutconditions

withconditions

if umbrellaor subgrants

program

EA Training Course

14USAID Procedures

Apply Environmental Screening Form

for Umbrella NGO/PVO Grant and Activity Proposals where Umbrella IEEs Exist

Step 1: Determine Grant Category

Category 1:Similar to Categorical

Exclusion

Category 2:Similar to Negative

Determination

Determine Nature of Activity/Grant

Step 4: Prepare Environmental Review

Review by Mission Evironmental. Officer (MEO)

Step 2: Summarize and Itemize Activities by Category

Step 3: Determine Need for Environmental Review

Review by Regional/Bureau Env. & Legal Officers (REDSO et Washington)

Category 3:Similar to Positive

Determination

Category 4:Activities typically notFunded: EA Required

Approval DisapprovalMore Env. Review Needed

EA Training Course

15USAID Procedures

Prepare IEEs with initial proposal.

IEES have an approval process: Regional Environmental Officer Bureau Environmental Officer (BEO) General Counsel's office.

EA Training Course

16USAID Procedures

Applicable Forms

Initial Environmental Examination or Categorical Exclusion form

Environmental Screening/Report Form for NGO/PVO Activities and Grant Proposals

Sample Outline for an Environmental Review.

EA Training Course

17USAID Procedures

Positive IEE Thresholds

If IEE threshold is positive (significant or harmful impacts), prepare Environmental Assessment (EA) or an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS):

EISs are for projects affecting the United States or the global environment.

EAs are for projects with impacts more limited in geographic scope.

EAs and EISs require teams of consultants, usually with USAID environmental staff.

EA Training Course

18USAID Procedures

Non-Project Assistance (NPA)

NPA involves institutional or policy change & sectoral adjustment.

USAID requires IEEs for NPA.

EA Training Course

19USAID Procedures

Exemptions

International disaster assistance: Other emergency situations [requires

Administrator (A/AID) or Assistant Administrator (AA/AID) formal approval]; and

Circumstances with exceptional foreign policy sensitivities [requires A/AID or AA/AID formal approval].

EA Training Course

20USAID Procedures

Categorical Exclusions

Education, training or technical assistance; Controlled experimental research of limited

scope and carefully monitored; Analysis, studies, workshops, meetings; Projects in which USAID is a minor donor; Documents or information transfer; Contribution to international, regional or

national organizations not for the purpose of carrying out specifically identifiable activities;

EA Training Course

21USAID Procedures

Institution building grants to research and educational institutions in the US;

Nutrition, health, population and family planning activities, except for their construction components and other activities directly affecting the environment

Commodity Import Programs (CIPs), when USAID has no knowledge of or control over use;

Support to intermediate credit institutions if USAID does not review or approve loans;

Maternal or child feeding programs under Title II of PL 480;

EA Training Course

22USAID Procedures

Food for development programs under Title III, when USAID has no specific knowledge or control;

Grants to PVOs where USAID has no specific knowledge or control;

Studies or projects that develop the capability of countries to engage in development planning, except those resulting in activities directly affecting the environment;

Activities that involve the application of USAID approved design criteria.Note: Categorical exclusions are not applicable to assistance for the procurement or use of pesticides.

EA Training Course

23USAID Procedures

Actions Normally Requiring an Environmental Assessment (EA)

River basin development(What is not in a river basin?);

Irrigation or water management including dams; Agricultural land leveling; Drainage; Large scale agricultural mechanization; New land development; Resettlement; Penetration road building or road improvement;

EA Training Course

24USAID Procedures

Power plants; Industrial plants; Potable water and sewage, unless small scale

(Size limit?); Activities jeopardizing endangered and

threatened plant and animal species and critical habitat;

Pesticides (require an IEE at least, often an EA).

EA Training Course

25USAID Procedures

If Not CE and Not EA?

- Prepare an IEE to make determination

- Probably a Negative Determinationwith or without conditions

EA Training Course

26USAID Procedures

Non-Project Assistance: Look at planned objectives, not just intermediate steps. If possible identify adverse environmental impacts, include mitigative measures.

EA Training Course

27USAID Procedures

Activities financed with host country local currency (not legally subject to Regulation 16 procedures) but:

Prepare IEE because of high visibility if negative impacts result.

Africa Bureau expects Missions to be sensitive to need for environmental examinations.

If local currencies are for general budget support, this may not be practical.

Governments want environmentally sound practices within their development activities.

In-country procedures to evaluate long term environmental impacts exist in many countries.

EA Training Course

28USAID Procedures

Mission Environmental Officer ensures that the responsible staff in appropriate ministry knows about environmental concerns, and asks for progress reports.

Cash grant program should include support for training environmental staff to carry out monitoring & mitigation and to develop response mechanisms if adverse impacts occur.

EA Training Course

29USAID Procedures

Intermediate credit: Categorical Exclusions apply only to capitalize an intermediate credit institution (ICI) where USAID has no right to review and approve each loan.

If a Categorical Exclusion is not appropriate, the MEO should recommend a negative determination or a deferral.

Must identify types of participating businesses, and existence of environmental guidelines.

EA Training Course

30USAID Procedures

Use Technical Assistance (TA), training, and promotional support to help monitor process.

Note: Credit programs for agricultural inputs, promotion of export crops, or other activities that might increase pesticide use, even indirectly, should be funded concurrently with programs to provide farmers with alternatives to pesticides.

EA Training Course

31USAID Procedures

Environmental Impact Statement (EIS)

An EIS is a detailed study of reasonably foreseeable environmental impacts, both beneficail and adverse when a proposed Agency action could significantly affect:

Global environment or areas outside jurisdiction of any nation (e.g., the oceans);

Environment of the United States; or Other aspects of the environment at Administrator’s

discretion.

EA Training Course

32USAID Procedures

Other Categories Of Activities Where Assistance May Be

Denied, Or An IEE Or Environmental Assessment

Is Required

EA Training Course

33USAID Procedures

Tropical Forests: Section 118 of the Foreign Assistance Act as amended 1986. Assistance must either be denied or an EA carried out, pursuant to Reg. 16, for any activities that:

involve procurement or use of logging equipment;

have the potential to significantly degrade national parks or similar protected areas or introduce exotic plants or animals into such areas;

EA Training Course

34USAID Procedures

According to Section 118, assistance is denied unless an EA shows proposed activity contributes significantly to improving the livelihood of the rural poor and is conducted in an environmentally sound manner supporting sustainable development for: activities which would result in the conversion of

forest lands to the rearing of livestock; entail construction, upgrading or maintenance of

roads which pass through relatively undegraded forest lands;

the colonization of forest lands; or entail construction of dams or other water

control structures which flood relatively undegraded forest lands.

EA Training Course

35USAID Procedures

Biological Diversity: Section 119 and of the Foreign Assistance Act as amended 1986. Under this section assistance must be denied for actions which significantly degrade national parks or similar protected areas or introduce exotic plants or animals into such areas.

EA Training Course

36USAID Procedures

Commercial Extractive Forestry: Section 533(c)(3) of the Foreign Operations, Export Financing and Related Programs Act, 1991 Expenditure prohibited if it "would result in any significant loss of tropical forests" or involve "commercial timber extraction of primary tropical forest areas," unless EA shows:

potential impacts on biological diversity; all timber extraction conducted according to environmentally

sound management system to maintain the ecological functions of the natural forest and minimize impacts of biological diversity; and

activity contributes to reduced deforestation.

Classifying Activities With Multiple Components

EA Training Course

38USAID Procedures

The Deferral Process

Environmental analysis deferred when programs, activities or sub-activities not specifically identified at the time of authorization.

Deferral should be minimized, i.e., do the IEE to avoid or mitigate impacts during design.

Covenants or conditions precedent needed to ensure environmental review completed prior to irreversible commitment of resources.

EA Training Course

39USAID Procedures

If there is deferral of IEE, proposal must: explain why the IEE cannot be completed; estimate amount of time required to complete the

IEE; and recommend that a Threshold Decision be deferred

until the IEE is completed.

Assistant Administrator acts on deferral request concurrently with action on initial proposal and designates time to complete IEE.

Normally completion date is sufficient for preparation of an EA or EIS, if required, before final funding decision.

EA Training Course

40USAID Procedures

Categorization Process for PVO/NGO Grants and Subgrants

USAID has increased funding to private voluntary organizations (PVOs) and non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

Generally support is through "umbrella" projects with many subgrants, and several NGO/PVO grantees.

USAID must ensure that activities are consistent with Reg. 16.

EA Training Course

41USAID Procedures

Environmental Review procedures and Environmental Screening Form have been developed for umbrella project subgrantees, where the umbrella grant IEE has already received a negative determination with conditions.

EA Training Course

42USAID Procedures

Screening and Environmental Review Procedures for PVO/NGO

Grantees and Subgrantees

Category 1: Subgrants that would normally qualify for a categorical exclusion under Reg. 16.Category 2: Subgrants that would normally qualify for a negative determination under Reg. 16, based on the fact that the grantee used an environmentally-sound approach to the activity design and incorporated appropriate mitigation and monitoring procedures.

EA Training Course

43USAID Procedures

Category 3: Subgrants where significant environmental impacts are likely such as those typically requiring an EA.

Category 4: Activities not fundable or fundable only when specifically defined findings to avoid or mitigate the impacts are made, based on an Environmental Assessment.

EA Training Course

44USAID Procedures

Use Screening Form to review subgrant proposals to determine in which Category the activity falls.

The MEO reviews and clears the category determination and any environmental review reports prepared as result of categorization.

Most subgrants will fall within Categories 1 and 2, and will be approvable by the USAID Mission.

Categories 3 and 4, and 2 if MEO so desires, must have Regional and Bureau review to determine if an EA is needed.

EA Training Course

45USAID Procedures

Promotion of Environmental Review and Capacity Building

Environmental review procedures specify how subgrants will be identified and reviewed.

Procedures ensure environmental accountability and soundness, with these assumptions:a. Subgrants individually reviewed and

screened;b. Environmental assessment and

management training provided;

EA Training Course

46USAID Procedures

c. Development and application of host country environmental

policies encouraged;d. Monitoring and evaluation process in

place; andf. Mission tracking and reporting on

subgrants to the BEO and REO in place.

EA Training Course

47USAID Procedures

Environmental Responsibilities

USAID Mission responsible for environmental review and decision-making for all sub-grants:

PVO and NGOs or CBOs submit proposals that consider potential environmental impacts and mitigation, including avoidance, and monitoring.

PVO, NGO or CBO uses Screening Form to categorize proposals.

MEO reviews and passes to REO and BEO Category 3 or Category 4 and, if uncertain, Category 2 activities.

EA Training Course

48USAID Procedures

Lead PVO, NGOs or CBOs ensure implementation of mitigating measures and long-term environmental impact monitoring.

MEO and the Project Officer and/or Project Manager ultimately responsible for monitoring environmental impacts of the grants.

Periodic visits of the REO or REA for advice and validation of the process.

EA Training Course

49USAID Procedures

Environmental Monitoring and Mitigation

Address monitoring of interventions and identify indicators in proposal design.

Plan for monitoring and mitigation to assure funding to do so will later exist.

Spell out how negative impacts will be mitigated, if and when they are detected during monitoring and evaluation.

For example, an agricultural production activity could adopt policy to encourage integrated pest management and sustainable agricultural practices.

EA Training Course

50USAID Procedures

1.0 PROGRAM/PROJECT DESCRIPTION

2.0 COUNTRY AND ENVIRONMENTAL INFORMATION (BASELINE INFORMATION)

3.0 EVALUATION OF PROJECT/PROGRAM ISSUES WITH RESPECT TO ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT POTENTIAL

4.0 RECOMMENDED MITIGATION (INCLUDING MONITORING AND EVALUATION)

SAMPLE OUTLINE FOR AN ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW

EA Training Course

51USAID Procedures

Definitions

Significant impacts: Defined in Regulation 16 as impacts that do significant harm to the environment.

Threshold Determination: To determine in preparing an IEE whether or not a proposed activity will have a significant impact on the environment.

Negative Determination: A decision that a proposed action or activity will have no significant adverse environmental impacts. Activities which have only beneficial impacts on the environment also receive a negative determination.

EA Training Course

52USAID Procedures

Positive determination: A decision that a proposed action or activity will have ‘significant impacts.’ Projects which both benefit and harm the environment should receive a positive determination, because despite their benefits the potential damage to the environment requires mitigation. In both cases the IEE results in a positive determination and a comprehensive review is required.

Exemptions: Regulation 16 exempts certain activities undertaken in response to emergencies, such as international disaster assistance (famine, civil war and displaced populations), or in circumstances involving exceptional foreign policy sensitivities.

EA Training Course

53USAID Procedures

Categorical exclusions: Categories of projects which are considered by nature very unlikely to have significant impacts on the environment. These project types are eligible for ‘categorical exclusion,’ and for them the environmental review process ends there.

Deferred determination or deferral: A decision to postpone IEE completion until sub-project activities are identified.