Environmental protection – the need for consideration

The document outlines the necessity of detailed, binding environmental legal tools to mitigate the impacts of forest conversion, such as biodiversity loss and climate change. It emphasizes the role of Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs), the importance of transparency, and the need for laws to be fit for the specific national context. Through case studies from Gabon, Ghana, Brazil, and Liberia, it illustrates how non-binding guidelines, limited agency capacity, and sustainability policies affect forest protection.

• Environmental legal tools are categorized into protection measures, which aim to prevent impacts (such as conservation areas and clearance rules), and compensatory measures, which aim to counteract unavoidable impacts through forest restoration and reclamation bonds.
• A significant legal risk occurs when environmental protections are detailed in non-binding guidelines or manuals rather than law, making enforcement difficult. In Gabon, the primary regulation on EIAs does not detail procedural steps, leaving those details to non-legally binding manuals and guidance documents.
• Broad exceptions in environmental laws can dilute forest protection; for instance, in Cote d’Ivoire, an EIA is only required for clear-cutting projects exceeding 999 hectares.
• Environmental laws may fail if they are not resourced for effective operation. In Ghana, the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) limited resources hinder the effective enforcement of environmental permits despite the volume of projects requiring monitoring.
• The timing of environmental assessments is critical; if an EIA occurs at the end of the approval process, pressure to approve the project can undermine impartial decision-making and lead to the oversight of alternative sites that could avoid forest clearance.
• Lack of transparency and legal rights to access environmental information prevents citizens from monitoring whether companies are meeting the requirements of environmental permits or fulfilling forest rehabilitation obligations.
• Effective forest classification and regular updates are necessary to prevent the clearing of high-biodiversity or high-carbon forests. In Brazil, the Soy Moratorium helped eliminate new deforestation for soybean plantations in the Amazon by encouraging the use of already-cleared land.
• Voluntary sustainability policies can restrict commercial activity even when legal concessions are broad. In Liberia, Sime Derby's 'no deforestation' policies and the need for community consent have limited the development of its 220,000-hectare concession to just over 10,000 hectares planted.

APA

ClientEarth (2018). Environmental protection – the need for consideration. https://www.clientearth.org/media/pe3eqhjs/legal-toolkit-on-forest-conversion-factsheet-4-environmental-protection-the-need-for-consideration-ce-en.pdf

Chicago

ClientEarth. Environmental protection – the need for consideration. 2018. https://www.clientearth.org/media/pe3eqhjs/legal-toolkit-on-forest-conversion-factsheet-4-environmental-protection-the-need-for-consideration-ce-en.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=ClientEarth |title=Environmental protection – the need for consideration |date=2018 |url=https://www.clientearth.org/media/pe3eqhjs/legal-toolkit-on-forest-conversion-factsheet-4-environmental-protection-the-need-for-consideration-ce-en.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{clientearth2018environmental, author = {{ClientEarth}}, title = {{Environmental protection – the need for consideration}}, institution = {ClientEarth}, year = {2018}, url = {https://www.clientearth.org/media/pe3eqhjs/legal-toolkit-on-forest-conversion-factsheet-4-environmental-protection-the-need-for-consideration-ce-en.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }