On February 18, 2024, the Board of Directors Resolution No. 00002-2024-OEFA/CD (the «Resolution») was published in the official gazette «El Peruano», which amends the Evaluation Regulation of the Environmental Evaluation and Oversight Agency – OEFA, approved by Board of Directors Resolution No. 00013-2020-OEFA/CD.
As a preliminary matter, it is worth noting that the purpose of the environmental assessments regulated in the referred Regulation is to determine the environmental quality of a given area, and the sources or causes of a possible alteration; that is, it identifies objective and technical facts in relation to the alteration of the environmental quality, if applicable. Unlike the supervision or inspection activities carried out by the OEFA, environmental assessments are not intended to identify non-compliance with the auditable obligations of the parties involved or to determine their administrative liability. However, the information obtained from the environmental assessment may serve as a basis for the subsequent initiation of an administrative sanctioning procedure, provided that there are grounds to impute the commission of an administrative infraction to an administrative party.
The most relevant aspects of the regulation are the following:
1. The implementation of mechanisms for citizen participation (the «Mechanisms») for the exercise of the evaluation function in charge of the OEFA, (i.e., in the Early Environmental Assessment, in the Follow-up Environmental Assessment, in the Focal Environmental Assessment («EAF»), and in the Causality Environmental Assessment) is hereby established.
– The Mechanisms will be carried out in the planning stage of the environmental assessment and, exceptionally, upon warning of situations of social conflict, they will also be implemented in the execution stage of the environmental assessment. Likewise, these may be carried out with respect to environmental assessments in technical actions that are outside the auditable units.
The OEFA, through the Coordination of Socio-Environmental Management, will map the possible participants of the Mechanisms within the framework of an environmental assessment. Article 6, paragraph d) of the Resolution states that any party interested in the activity or project to be evaluated may request the OEFA to incorporate them as participants during the execution of the Mechanisms.
– The Mechanisms regulated in the Resolution, which may be implemented within the framework of an environmental assessment, are the following:
(i) Meeting for the proposal of the Assessment Plan.
(ii) Workshop for the presentation of the Assessment Plan.
(iii) Accompaniment in the execution of the environmental assessment.
(iv) Meeting for the presentation of the Environmental Assessment Report.
The evaluator is empowered to determine the relevance of the development or the number of Mechanisms to be implemented, according to the type of environmental evaluation; as well as to suspend them for justified reasons, including the affectation to the integrity and security of the participants or the evaluators.
– On the other hand, the participants of the Mechanisms will be empowered, among others, to propose sampling points to the evaluator for his consideration and to request the taking of counter-samples until before the approval of the Evaluation Plan.
– Likewise, all the Mechanisms comprise the following stages:
(i) Convening: within no less than ten working days of the Mechanisms being carried out, the social actors that have been determined as relevant social actors are convened. The call should be made by means of formal invitations, media or other means that ensure the greatest number of participants.
(ii) Analysis of the development of the Mechanisms: The information obtained from the development of the Mechanisms is consolidated, systematized and analyzed in order to identify opportunities for improvement in their implementation.
2. Likewise, it is worth mentioning that the Resolution stipulates that the Mechanisms can be applied for participatory environmental monitoring tasks that are developed within the framework of Dialogue Tables, multisectoral interventions or other spaces in which the OEFA participates.
3. Finally, other additional clarifications have been included, such as the opportunity in which the EAF can be carried out, providing that it can be initiated ex officio or at the request of other authorities.
For further information, please contact Francisco Tong (ftong@estudiorodrigo.com), Ursula Zavala (uzavala@estudiorodrigo.com), Jenny Caldas (jcaldas@estudiorodrigo.com) and/or Natalia Zúñiga (nzuniga@estudiorodrigo.com).
