Environmental consultancy

The paper helps to illustrate where environmental consultancy has given and will give increasing guidance to decision makers in industrial and infrastructure planning and policy fields, as well as in project development. The techniques of applied environmental management are briefly outlined. Also shown are some of the shortcomings often apparent in the way consultants have been asked to undertake environmental impact assessment, and in the way it has been integrated into the decision-making process. It is argued that the effectiveness of environmental assessment depends not only on how a job is undertaken and presented, but also on the terms of reference for the environmental consulting project and its timeliness and manner of integration into the development process. The authors present environmental assessment as a process which can contribute to better utilisation of limited resources and which can help to ensure that maximum benefit is realised from the development process. They argue that the scope of and resources devoted to environmental assessment should be geared to the particular circumstances, and must be realistic in approach, taking account of the political and economic context in which development is taking place.