(from the Environmental Procedures Training Manual, Appendix A.2)

Definitions of "high risk" activities typically requiring an ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT (EA)

What triggers an EA? Activities that can trigger an EA are covered under four sets of regulatory provisions. These are: (1) actions normally having a significant effect on the environment [22 CFR 216.2(d)(1)]; (2) some pesticides [22 CFR 216.3(b)]; (3) endangered species and critical habitats [22 CFR 216.5]; and (4) special provisions of the Foreign Assistance Act as described below.

The regulation defines an EA as "a detailed study of the reasonably foreseeable significant effects, both beneficial and adverse, of a proposed action on the environment of a foreign country or countries." See the Reg. 216 language [§216.6] in Annex B for more detail. The regulation provides information about the processing, format, and content of an EA, which is a relatively major document (with more detail, coverage, and depth than the IEE). As mentioned elsewhere EAs frequently take several months to a year to complete and are not normally applied to small-scale activities.

The four regulatory provisions that trigger an EA serve as a potential "red flag" that an EA might be required. You will note as you read the items covered by these four provisions that there is no reference to scale or magnitude of actions. The need for an EA as opposed to an IEE is a matter of judgment. Thus, you will prepare an IEE, even if you have activities included in this list, so that you can provide information about scale, scope, and intensitye of the activities. (For example, if your activities are small-scale or if pesticides have a specific kind of registration status, you will indicate in the IEE why mitigative measures and monitoring are sufficient and why an EA might not need to be prepared. Remember that EAs for small-scale activities are relatively rare.

If you have sets of similar activities, or you and other USAID Partners working in the same area have similar activities, you might consider a Programmatic EA (PEA), which looks generically or programmatically at the entire class of actions. (E.g., "dams and irrigation interventions in Country X.")

Guidance on the use of PEAs is also provided in Reg. 216 [§216.6(d)]. The regulation states they "may be appropriate in order to assess the environmental effects of a number of individual actions and their cumulative environmental impact in a given country or geographic area, or the environmental impacts that are generic or common to a class of agency actions, or other activities which are not country specific."

Classic PEAs are of benefit when a broad examination of a class of impacts is needed, typically in situations where previous EAs have not been performed and there is little past experience to use as a guide. See Annex F in EPTM: Programmatic Environmental Assessments-Special Application for additional detail. See Section 3.3 for pointers regarding next steps if your IEE leads to a positive determination.

Specific activities usually requiring an EA. Reg. 216 identifies several generic "classes of action" that are considered a priori to have a high potential for causing harm to the environment and normally require an EA. These are

"Actions normally having a significant effect on the environment" [§216.2(d)(1)]: (i) Programs of river basin development;

(ii) Irrigation or water management projects, including dams and impoundments;

(iii) Agricultural land leveling;

(iv) Drainage projects;

(v) Large scale agricultural mechanization;

(vi) New lands development;

(vii) Resettlement projects;

(viii) Penetration road building or road improvement projects;

(ix) Powerplants;

(x) Industrial plants; and

(xi) Potable water and sewerage projects other than those that are small-scale.

Other activities and project attributes often requiring an EA.

· Procurement or Use of Pesticides [§216.3(b)] . Any assistance involving procurement or use of pesticides is subject to USAID's Pesticide Procedures [22 CFR 216.3(b)]. The definition of a pesticide is broad and includes insecticides, fungicides, herbicides, many other "cides" as well as botanical pesticides and certain biological controls. In many instances, an IEE suffices to describe the conditions for safe use of pesticides. Some types of pesticides require an EA (or EIS); other pesticides may require an EA on the basis of a threshold decision made in an IEE. If pesticide procurement or use is part of your activity, you will need to review the specific provisions of 216.3(b), then determine the USEPA registration status and what restrictions apply with respect to user or environmental hazard, and find out whether USEPA intends to cancel or suspend registration, or has initiated other types of regulatory actions. Unless the exceptions (stringent) of 216.3(b)(2) apply, an IEE must be prepared that addresses the 12 specific types of information required by 216.3(b)(1)(i).

Users of the EPTM may find it useful to obtain up-to-date information on pesticide registration at the following Internet website: http://www.epa.gov/ebtpages/pesticides.html.

In practice, USAID's pesticide procedures have had an unintended chilling effect on USAID's engagement in pesticide management, because of the perceived technical and informational hurdles. Paradoxically, Reg. 216 has also tended to minimize the inclination of USAID and its partners to become involved in integrated pest management (IPM). There is no reason why the prudent use of well-chosen, so-called general-use and least-toxic pesticides should not be readily justifiable to promote crop productivity. Ideally, these can be linked to IPM and sustainable agricultural practices.

In order to apply USAID regulations pertaining to pesticides, the name of the pesticide to be used and its USEPA registration status must be known. Contact your headquarters support staff and USAID's BEOs for assistance.

· Endangered species and critical habitat [§216.5 ]. Regulation 216 contains specific language regarding project activities which may affect endangered species and/or critical habitat:

It is A.I.D. policy to conduct its assistance programs in a manner that is sensitive to the protection of endangered or threatened species and their critical habitats. The Initial Environmental Examination for each project, program or activity having an effect on the environment shall specifically determine whether the project, program or activity will have an effect on an endangered or threatened species, or critical habitat. If the proposed project, program or activity will have the effect of jeopardizing an endangered or threatened species or of adversely modifying its critical habitat, the Threshold Decision shall be a Positive Determination and an Environmental Assessment or Environmental Impact Statement completed as appropriate, which shall discuss alternatives or modifications to avoid or mitigate such impact on the species or its habitat.

For more on endangered and threatened species and the U.S. response to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) see Box 1

· Tropical forests, as addressed in the Foreign Assistance Act (FAA). Based on amendments to the 1992 FAA, Section 118(c)(14) assistance must be denied for:

(A) the procurement or use of logging equipment (unless an environmental assessment indicates that all timber harvesting operations involved will be conducted in an environmentally sound manner which minimizes forest destruction, and that the proposed activity will produce positive economic benefits and sustainable forest management systems); and (B) actions which significantly degrade national parks or similar protected areas which contain tropical forests or introduce exotic plants or animals into such areas.

Assistance must also be denied under Section 118(c)(15) for the following activities, unless an environmental assessment indicates that the proposed activity will contribute significantly and directly to improving the livelihood of the rural poor and will be conducted in an environmentally sound manner which supports sustainable development:

(A) Activities which would result in the conversion of forest lands to the rearing of livestock.

(B) Construction, upgrading or maintenance of roads, including temporary haul roads for other logging or other extractive industries, that pass through relatively undegraded forest lands.

(C) Colonization of forest lands.

(D) Construction of dams or other water control structures that flood relatively undegraded forest lands.

Biological diversity and endangered species, as addressed in the Foreign Assistance Act (FAA). Section 119 of the Foreign Assistance Act specifies that the preservation of animal and plant species through the regulation of hunting and trade in endangered species, through limitations on the pollution of natural ecosystems and through protection of habitats, is an important objective of U.S. development assistance. USAID must ensure that ongoing and proposed actions by the Agency do not inadvertently endanger wildlife or plant species or their critical habitats, harm protected areas, or have other adverse impacts on biological diversity.

Section 119(g)(10) provides for the denial of direct or indirect assistance "for actions which significantly degrade national parks or similar protected areas or introduce exotic plants or animals into such areas." In addition to the endangered species provisions of Reg. 216 and the Foreign Assistance Act, the Endangered Species Act of 1973 (as amended in 1978, 1982, 1988, and 1998) and the CITES convention affect USAID-funded actions overseas (see Box 1).