1 in 20 Firms Carry Out Environment Assessments

Only about 5 percent of the roughly 2,000 major development projects, such as dams, roads and bridges, approved by the government between 2004 and 2011 carried out environmental impact assessments, an official at the ministry of Environment said yesterday. Speaking at a workshop in Phnom Penh on a new draft Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) law, Danh Serey, deputy director of the ministry’s EIA department, said existing legislation such as the 1996 Law on Environmental Protection and Natural Resource Management was not strong enough to ensure companies conduct the necessary environmental check before starting work. …

Simon Lewis and Khuon Narim, P.1
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