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Environment assessment and site selection

BEC Consultants staff are experienced and qualified to contribute to Environmental Impact Assessment Reports (EIAR) and have completed numerous projects in terrestrial, freshwater and marine environments around Ireland. BEC Consultants staff have prepared Biodiversity chapters for EIARs including offshore wind farms, bridges, wastewater treatment plants and harbour/marina developments with particular emphasis on assessing impacts within the marine environment including those on marine mammals. Reports are written following the Guidelines for Ecological Impact Assessment in the UK and Ireland prepared by the Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management (CIEEM) in 2018.

BEC Consultants can assist in the preparation of an EIAR and contribute to the process at all stages including:

• screening
• scoping
• stakeholder consultation
• ecological constraints study/site selection/feasibility
• baseline/existing environment description
• impact assessment
• recommendation of mitigation measures
• reporting
• attendance at oral hearing as expert witness.

On successful granting of consent, BEC Consultants can contribute to the preparation of Environmental Management Plans (EMP) and Construction Management Plans (CMP), undertake construction monitoring and develop and undertake operation phase monitoring.

Background Information on EIA

The EIA process finds its beginnings in Council Directive 85/337/EEC on the assessment of the effects of certain public and private projects on the environment, and this directive and its three amendments were codified in 2011 (2011/92/EU). The latest amendment (2014/52/EU) makes a number of changes based on the results of a review of the EIA Directive, and was to be brought into force by Member States through the appropriate measures by 16^th May 2017.