“ROUND TABLE” IN MINISTRY OF ECOLOGY HELD
The Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources hosted a “round table” entitled “Environmental Impact Assessment /EIA/ in the Southern Caucasus Countries” in the Orkhus Center. As a rule, the EIA is carried out by big companies before launching production of oil and gas, various minerals harmful to the environment. Local companies have relatively lately begun to carry out EIA. Nonetheless, the assessments are conducted by local and foreign companies nominally using old data explored by research institutions before. The capacity of assessments was admitted as one of EIA’s shortcomings.
The Presentation of the Report on Environmental Impact Assessments in Azerbaijan funded by the European subsidies program for Environmental cooperation and Netherlands Commission for Environmental Impact Assessment was also conducted at the “round table”. The “round table” was attended by the Economic and Environmental Officer of OSCE office in Azerbaijan David Swalley, representatives of the NAS, Ministries of Transports, Fuel and Energy, Economic Development, “Azneft” Company and local and foreign investors – Azpetrol, Baku-Cement, Baku-Coca-Cola, BTC Co, BP, Exxon-Azerbaijan etc.
