Environmental (and Social) Impact Assessments (EIA) are conducted to evaluate the environmental and social risks of a development project including mining, hotels, and other large infrastructure projects. A range expenditures and investment to preserve nature are associated with the EIA process including permitting fees, expenditures for the assessment itself, expenditures for implementation of the environmental and social management plans, performance bonds, insurance products, biodiversity offsets etc. Additionnally, penalties may be directly triggered by non-compliance to the EIA and its associated management plans.
EIA permitting and review fees
Fees charged to developers for complementing the Environmental (and Social) Impact Assessments (EIA) review process by public authorities. Fees are often set at cost recovery rates. The resources are used to staff environmental agencies responsible to review EIA.
EIA performance bonds
A performance (or contract bond) is a surety bond issued by an insurance or financial company to guarantee satisfactory completion of a project by a contractor. Performance bonds and other financial guarantees can be linked to EIA provisions. These are provided by the project developer -usually for long term mining projects- to assure stakeholders that financial resources can be deployed even if the developer cannot comply with EIA provisions. It is a promise from a surety that monetary compensation will be provided to the owner if the project developer fails to act. The resources from the surety can be quickly deployed to save or recover critical environmental assets and can be accessed even in case of bankruptcy.