Practice of EIA Inquiry Committee in Japanese Local Governments

1
Practice of EIA Inquiry Committee in Japanese
Local Governments
IAIA 27th Annual Conference 6 June 2007 Seoul,
KOREA

• Shigeo NISHIKIZAWA and Yasuhiro FUJII
• The University of Shiga Prefecture

2
Viewpoint and Objective

• Transparency
• Third Party Check System
• EICEIA Inquiry Committee Local Governments
• To examine the validity of EIA
• Procedures of inquiry are left to
• Ordinances or discretion
• To clarify the practical conditions of EIC

3
Methodology

• Ordinances or Guidelines of EIA
• Panel Survey ( Nov.-Dec., 2006 )
• 56 Local Governmentscollecting rate100
• 44 Prefectures 12 Ordinance-designated
  cities
• EIA officer answer on the basis of
• projects within 5 years

4
Questionnaire

• Contents of the Inquiry by EIC
• EIA guideline?, Scoping document?, DEIS?
  etc
• Member of EIC
• The number of committee members?,
• Officers opinion of committee member?
  
• Procedures of inquiry
• Period for inquiry?,
• Committees conduct project-site survey?
• Disclosure of EIC
• Meeting?, Minute?, Announcement on the
  internet?

5
Contents of inquiry regulated by ordinance
56 Local Governments
Contents of Inquiry
Number of Local Gov.
(95)
(73)
Yamanashi Pref., Toyama Pref., Fukuoka Pref. and
Yokohama city
(91)
(84)
6
Practical condition of Inquiry
no provision, discretion
Contents of Inquiry
Guideline of EIA Tech.
Scoping Document
DEIS
FEIS
Follow up Document
Number of Local Gov.
7
Reality and Ideal of Committee Member
EIA system experts are not enough
Kawasaki City necessity to be appointed by PA
0
8
Procedure Period for inquiry Completion of
Scoping Submission of DEIS
Month
Longest period project
Shortest period project
3 days
Proponents have conducted the greater part of the
survey at the scoping process
Local Governments
9
Project-site survey conducted by the committee
Project Phase
Number of Local governments
Scoping (n56)
DEIS (n53)
Project Implementation (n51)
Project Completion (n50)
Conduct
fifty-fifty
Do not Conduct



10
Disclosure of EIC
11
Conclusions
1)It is cleared that most committees examine
scoping documents and DEISs. To the contrary,
few committees examine FEIS and follow up
documents. 2)All of the committees appoint
ecology-experts. However, EIA system-experts are
appointed at a few committees because of short
supply. 3)Most of survey for EIA have been
completed for less than one year. It implies that
the greater part of survey have been conducted at
the scoping process. 4 ) Saitama prefectures
committee has been taking appropriate measures
for disclosure. In future, it should be improved
the announcement on the internet in many local
governments.