Problem overview:

     Integrating stakeholders: Since development projects will affect a number of stakeholder groups in different ways, could be positive or negative. Either way, it is necessary to bring these affected parties together when it comes to conducting the Environmental Impact Assessment, so that every voice will be heard.

     Meeting information requirements: A huge amount of information will be gathered and processed as input for the EIA, but it is important to select and keep only the ones that are necessary and eliminate the ones that are irrelevant, and this is why there is a need for the Scoping Process.

Background:

      Deciding what to include in an EIA in partnership with all interested participants.

      In Sri Lanka, the scoping process, which is a vital component of the EIA process, provides meaningful and an essential human context to the mass of data that surrounds development projects. It accelerates the EIA effort by enabling the EIA team to grasp key issues and concerns much more rapidly.

      At the outset, the Project Approving Authority (PAA) determined the scope of issues to be addressed and identifies the significant issues related to the proposed action, through the following important activities among others.

• Determination of the scope and significant issues to be analyzed in depth by the EIA.
  
  
• Determination of the reasonable alternatives that should be addressed in the EIA.
  
  
• Identification and elimination from the detailed study, the issues which are not significant or which have been covered by prior studies or environmental reviews.

      The scoping process itself essentially involves formal and informal meetings with people who may be affected by the proposed project either directly or indirectly or who may have special knowledge of the project area and its environment. Affected parties would include any of the following.

• Government agencies responsible for authorizing, implementing or monitoring project activities.
  
  
• Representatives of NGO who will be directly or indirectly affected by the proposed project.
  
  
• Location businesses, interest groups or individuals adjacent to or in the immediate vicinity of the proposed project work area or otherwise influenced by the physical, biological, social or economic changes that interact with the proposed project action.

      Scoping identifies existing sources of data, key individual contacts and important areas of field study. It increases local, regional and national awareness of the project, its environmental concerns and facilitates rapid data collection and analysis. At the completion of the scoping process, the significant environmental issues, which should be analyzed, becomes evident.

      The immediate result of the concluded scoping process is the preparation or modification of the Terms of Reference (TOR) for the conduct of the EIA. It also ensures that the final EIA recommendations, addresses in a balanced manner, the concerns and views of all concerned, to achieve optimum benefits from the project.

      In this way, the scoping process, examines and assesses in a meaningful manner the conflicts of interest of diverse groups and co-ordinates activities from the very outset in the conduct of EIA process.