Abstract
ABSTRACT Environmental assessment (EA) is a primary tool for identifying and managing the impacts of development on wetlands. Despite the global presence of EA and wetland policies, wetlands continue to be lost. This paper examines how EA is being deployed to identify, assess, and mitigate impacts on wetlands. The focus is on the mining sector in western and northern Canada. A sample of 36 EAs for mining projects in British Columbia and Yukon, filed between 2010 and 2021, was analyzed to examine how wetlands were considered in the project description, baseline, impact analysis, mitigation, and management plans. Results indicate a narrow focus on the wetland area as a proxy for impacts and a dominant focus on direct impacts, indicating that the full extent of potential impacts on wetland functions is not captured; a tendency to prioritize mitigation of impacts on habitat with less attention to other wetland functions; a reliance on secondary sources versus field-based studies to identify impacts; and weak linkages between mitigations and impact predictions. Lessons emerging emphasize the need for improvements to foundational EA practices for wetland assessment and mitigation. Better practice is urgent considering the declining state of wetlands globally, coupled with an expanding mining sector.
Published Version
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