UNDERSTANDING THE BLUEPRINT OF ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT FOR DEVELOPING COUNTRIES: THE HEADWAY AND IMPEDIMENTS IN CAMEROON

Explicitly, environmental impact assessment (EIA) is a key aspect of many planning applications. It is an information gathering exercise carried out by the developer which enables a Local Planning Authority to understand the environmental effects of a development before deciding whether it should go ahead. Apparently, the EIA of developing country dates back to the mid-1970s, varying significantly from country to country, with its performance generally falling far behind the EIA of developed countries. Thus, it is crucial and paramount that this performance should be improved in order to ameliorate and enhance the protection of the environment of the developing countries. In this regard, this article considers the general perspectives of EIA in developing countries, against a set of robust evaluation criteria to determine its strengths and weaknesses on issues relating to: legal framework, coverage, consideration of alternatives, screening, scoping, report preparation, report review, decision-making, impact monitoring, mitigation, consultation and participation, system monitoring, costs and benefits, and strategic environmental assessment. Therefore, based on these, it is realised that in developing countries in general and Cameroon in particular, the EIA practice is facing some short comings and encumbrances, as only few of the evaluation criteria are usually met. This, implicitly, suggests that there are some urgent generic and crucial issues to be addressed and redressed, if EIA has to fulfil its viable objectives in the sustainable development agenda. Some of the issues include legislation, organisational capacity, training, environmental information, participation, diffusion of experience, donor policy and political will, as envisaged in the case of Cameroon.