Effectiveness of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA): Bangladesh Perspective

EIA as an environment management tool has been successful in terms of global awareness rising over the last four decades. Due to its rationalist approach it has been criticized about the inherent aim of influencing development decision and protecting the environment. Numerous researches have been performed to measure the 'effectiveness of EIA' which is still evolving as a domain. Four major criteria’s have been established till date. Effectiveness of Bangladesh EIA system has been explored with the help of those criteria’s. Procedural ineffectiveness seeks government measure in a couple areas mainly through institutional arrangement and capacity building. Substantive ineffectiveness reflects the global trend of failure to influence the development decision truly. Transactive effectiveness will be far reaching for a country like Bangladesh, depended on foreign aid largely. Normative effectiveness is still little known, but mass awareness about the environment through the debate regarding an ES report is a recent experience.