Arctic EIA

Questionnaire on Good Practice in Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and Public Participation in the Arctic

The Arctic EIA project is looking for examples of good practice from EIA projects undertaken across the Arctic circumpolar region. Have you taken part in a well-executed EIA? Or is there a specific component of an EIA, like public participation or mitigation measures that has been completed so successfully that it could be used as an example of good practice? If so, we would like you to tell us about your experiences.

What is a good practice? Good practice, broadly speaking, is a practice or procedure that has proven to work well, has produced good results, and can therefore be recommended as a model.

The purpose of this questionnaire is to identify and collect good practices in order to share and refine them into good practice recommendations for how EIA should be conducted in the Arctic. The questionnaire is targeted to all EIA stakeholders: Indigenous Peoples and other Arctic residents and communities, authorities, developers, consultants, NGOs, scholars and any other interested participant.

We appreciate you taking the time to fill out this questionnaire. Responses will be analyzed by the Arctic EIA project’s Editorial group. Reporting of the results of the questionnaire will happen on a general level and will not be connected to the personal information of the respondent.

If you need more information, or would prefer to participate in a telephone interview, rather than submit a written response, please contact the Project coordinator, Päivi A. Karvinen using the following e-mail or telephone number:

paivi.karvinen@ym.fi

tel. +358 50 308 0194

Please, feel free to distribute this questionnaire within your community of EIA practitioners and others who may be interested in responding.

We’d kindly ask your responses by December 22, 2017.

Questionnaire

In filling out this questionnaire, you are kindly asked to respond to the following three components of interest:

Part I) contemplate and comment in a generalized way about what, in your opinion, constitutes good practice for EIA in the Arctic,

Part II) describe a specific example or a number of examples that in your opinion, exemplify good practice in EIA; and,

Part III) provide your background and contact information.

None of the questions in Parts I and Part II are compulsory. You are welcome to skip any question that does not seem relevant to the good practice ideas or examples you want to highlight.

You should be able to complete the questionnaire in 15 to 45 minutes, depending on the characteristics and complexity of the example(s) that you wish to highlight. Thank you very much for your cooperation.

PART I: GENERAL QUESTIONS

1. Can you describe general concepts or principles that could be used to define good practice(s) for the conduct of EIA in the Arctic?

2. Based on your knowledge and experience with EIA in your region of the Arctic, can you describe what currently works well and what does not? How would you improve EIA as practiced in your region of the Arctic?

3. Can you provide any special insights into public participation related to EIA in the Arctic?

4. In your opinion, what Arctic specific issues or themes deserve the most attention for the development of recommendations for good EIA practice in the Arctic?

PART II: EXAMPLES OF PROJECT SPECIFIC GOOD PRACTICE

5. Please provide the name(s) of the project(s) that you would like to exemplify as examples of good practice in Arctic EIA.

Please, specify the location

7. Is your example referring to the entire EIA process?

Yes

8. Is your example referring to some particular component(s) of an EIA process? Particular components may include but are not restricted to the following. You can use this list as a reference only or mark one or more components to describe your example.

Public participation

Inclusion of indigenous knowledge and world view

Application of EIA to the project (screening)

Gathering of baseline data

Identification and evaluation of alternatives

Adequacy of mitigation measures

Quality of a monitoring program

Connection to decision making

Assessment of impacts

Other

9. Please fully describe the example(s) of good practice you wish to highlight. Why do you see your example as exemplifying good practice? What lessons can be learned from this example that can benefit others?

10. Can your example of good practice(s) be found online? Please provide the internet link if possible. Alternatively, are there off-line documents that could be shared with the Arctic EIA project?

You may also share documents by sending them to paivi.karvinen@ym.fi or Päivi A. Karvinen, Ministry of the Environment, P.O. Box 35, 00023 GOVERNMENT, Finland

PART III: BACKGROUND AND CONTACT INFORMATION

I have participated in or followed:

1 EIA

2-4 EIAs

5-10 EIAs

More than 10 EIAs

My experience of EIA(s) is mostly in a role of a

inhabitant

land user

authority

proponent

consultant

representative of a NGO

representative of media

scholar

other

If you wish, please specify

Permission to contact

I may be contacted by the Arctic EIA project for further questions, clarifications or elaborations of my answers

I may not be contacted by the project

I want to subscribe to the Newsletter of the Arctic EIA project

Your name *

Your home country *

E-mail address *

Telephone no.

Organization (if applicable)

Position in the organization (if applicable)

Website of your organization (if applicable)

11. Do you have any other comments or suggestions with regards to good EIA practices in the Arctic or about the Arctic EIA project?

Thank you for taking the time to complete this questionnaire. Your contribution is highly valued and we very much appreciate your input in the Arctic EIA project!