A review of the quality of environmental impact assessments in the Scottish forest sector

Abstract

The Environmental Assessment (Afforestation) Regulations 1988 became effective on 12 July 1988. In Scotland, between 1988 and 1996 a total of 160 applications for grant assistance for afforestation proposals received by the Forestry Commission have been subject to Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). Of these, 81 had been completed by 1996 and the assessment process concluded. In common with other EIA legislation in the UK there is no mandatory review stage in the assessment process. This paper presents a review procedure tailored for use in the UK forest sector. Using this procedure, a 20 per cent sample of completed Environmental Statements (ES), was reviewed, and the results presented. In addition, statistics of the total forest sector EIA activity during the period 1988-1996 are presented, describing the number of assessments requested by conservancy, current status and, the reasons why the assessments were initially requested. Although there were instances of good practice in the assessment process, the review highlighted the overall poor quality of EIA and ES production. The recurring elemental failure, which subsequently led to additional difficulties, was the absence of a full scoping phase. Assessments were therefore unfocused, did not adequately investigate the key issues and wasted effort on irrelevancies. This in turn led to the collection of inadequate baseline data, which later made the task of assessing the magnitude and significance of impact extremely difficult. The review also noted that only one Woodland Grant Scheme (WGS) application was rejected following EIA, and that none of the ESs reviewed found any significant impacts. In light of the poor coverage of mitigation methods this suggests that both project screening and EIA practice require strengthening. The authors wish to thank the Forestry Authority for the assistance given while carrying out the background research for this paper.