The Role of Environmental Impact Assessment Report in Ensuring the Sustainable Development in Sri Lanka

Abstract

National Environment Act evolved in order to ensure and guarantee that the development projects are carried out in compliance with the notion of sustainable development. The Amendments to the National Environment Act, Amendment No 56 of 1988 and the Amendment Act No 53 of 2000 Part IVC titled approval of projects introduced a special criteria for approval and grant of license to implement and embark on the development projects which has a huge impact on the environment. Environmental Impact Assessment Report (EIAR) / Initial Environmental Assessment Report (IEAR )is a mandatory requirement which should be submitted by the project proponent to the project approving agency if he is willing to engage in development projects that is going to impact on the environmental quality. The Sri Lankan judiciary also has recognized the vital role of submitting the EIAR/IEAR in order to ensure that the development projects are in compliance with the notion of sustainable development. The primary objective of the paper is to analyze the significance of the EIAR/IEARR in promoting the sustainable development in Sri Lanka. The secondary objectives include also to analyze the legislative evolution of the requirement of EIAR/IEER for development projects to analyze the role of judiciary of Sri Lanka in recognizing the vital importance of these environmental reports. The paper employs the black letter of law where the constitutional provisions and Legislative enactments such as National Environment Act and decided cases in Sri Lanka are used as primary sources and scholarly articles on the topic are used as secondary sources. The paper finds that the Sri Lankan judiciary has played a Herculean task in upholding the sustainable development by ensuring that EIAR/IEER should be submitted before embarking on the projects which could have an impact on the environment to ensure the projects are environmentally viable. The paper concludes if a nation to thrive, environment preservation cannot be singled out from the development and the duty of citizens is to abide by the laws which are aimed at protecting and preserving the nature and its riches.