Environmental Management, Conservation and Sustainability: Policy, Legislation, EIA and Sustainable Development
Domain 4 tests whether you can choose the right instrument, sequence an environmental assessment correctly, and apply sustainability principles to a real proposal. Answers are marked on order, terminology and the distinction between avoiding an impact and paying for it.
Instruments and principles
- Regulatory: Acts, subsidiary legislation, permits, standards, bans.
- Economic: taxes, charges, subsidies, deposit-refund schemes.
- Voluntary and information: agreements, eco-labels, education, access to information.
- Principles: sustainable development (Brundtland - meeting present needs without compromising future generations); precautionary principle; polluter pays; prevention over cure.
- Mitigation hierarchy: avoid → minimise → restore → offset/compensate. Compensation is a last resort, not a licence.
Malta's framework
- The Environment Protection Act (Cap. 435) is the parent Act; the Environment and Resources Authority (ERA) is the regulator, and the Planning Authority issues development permits - both created in 2016 when MEPA was split.
- EIA Regulations: Annex I projects always require an EIA; Annex II projects are screened case by case.
- SEA applies to plans and programmes (local plans, waste plans); EIA applies to individual projects.
- Malta implements the Birds and Habitats Directives; Natura 2000 sites include Għadira, Simar, Buskett, Filfla, Comino and Posidonia seabed areas. Malta is party to the Aarhus Convention on information, participation and justice.
- EIA sequence: screening → scoping → baseline → impact prediction → mitigation → environmental management plan → consultation → decision with conditions → monitoring and audit.
Worked example
A road-widening scheme runs past a Natura 2000 valley. Screening places it in Annex II with likely significant effects, so an EIA is required. Scoping narrows the study to hydrology, PM10 dust, noise and protected species. Avoid: realign the road away from the valley - the strongest option. Minimise: permeable drainage, silt traps, works outside the breeding season. Restore: reinstate garrigue and rubble walls. Offset: only if the lower rungs are exhausted and imperative reasons of overriding public interest are demonstrated. If a priority habitat is affected, compensation may not be permissible at all.
Traps that cost marks
- Saying "the EIA was approved" - the EIA informs a decision; the permit is the decision.
- Mixing up screening (is an EIA needed?) with scoping (what will it cover?).
- Applying SEA to a single project, or EIA to a national plan.
- Treating consultation as a referendum; reasoned objections must be answered in the decision.