ESIA - Environmental and social impact assessments

Antea Group has extensive knowledge and experience in the field of environmental and social assessment for its private and public clients’ projects within the energy, mining, waste, water, land development and industrial sectors.

Our multidisciplinary approach, including local expertise, enables us to perform various project-specific E&S studies, adequately sized depending on E&S issues, such as Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA), Environmental and Social Management Plan (ESMP), Resettlement Action Plan (RAP), Stakeholders Engagement Plan (SEP), Industrial risk assessment, etc.

Antea Group assists its clients by ensuring that their project’s environmental permitting schedule and budget stay on track by facilitating the interface between the client, local and international E&S experts and lenders.

Environmental assessments are fundamental requirements for development projects to acquire funding from international financial institutions (WB, IFC, AFD, EBRD, BAfD, KfW, BEI, ADB, MCC, etc.).

Many of these institutions have developed E&S standards to be applied. These standards require more comprehensive impact assessments and the in depth-study of specific E&S issues such as critical habitat evaluation and biodiversity offset, ecosystem services, indigenous peoples, human and workers’ rights, adaptation to climate change, associated facilities, cumulative impacts, and greenhouse gases.

Thanks to our numerous successfully conducted ESIA projects, we provide the expertise and experience in order to provide E&S studies compliant with E&S performance standards. Moreover, our experienced E&S team also provides gap analyses in order to upgrade existing or local ESIAs to International Standards.

We also provide environmental technical assistance for our clients who need support for information, studies, reports and other document reviews and the implementation of the project E&S management system in line with the performance standards.

Antea Group has extensive experience of project management for a wide range of ESIAs and, depending on the project and client’s needs, provides a full package of services, from conceptual project design to environmental permitting and subsequently to construction monitoring or technical assistance throughout the project life cycle.

Our ESIA’s work is iterative, working closely with the engineering team to optimize project design and mitigate its impacts whilst maintaining project viability.

With our experience in managing and coordinating input from various disciplines, we are well positioned to provide extended engineering studies associated to ESIA such as hazard hydrogeological / hydrological, waste management and geotechnical studies, GIS management, land remediation that satisfy client requirements.

Not only do we have the extensive experience required to manage the complex processes surrounding ESIAs and permits, but we also develop a strong and reliable network of local resources from a wide range of disciplines and countries that we can contract according to project needs.

The appropriate analysis of environmental and social resources, cultural practices and national regulatory framework is performed along with an environmental and social evaluation, and success is based on the integration of the local expertise associated in the early stages of the project.

Most of our projects are created with a local partnership that provides logistics, skills, knowledge and experience related to its country, its environment, its habits and customs.

Besides this country expertise, we have also developed a strong business expertise network with other international companies and freelancers who bring their technical knowledge and expertise on specific subjects.

A project’s social acceptability is based on structured and transparent communications with stakeholders. We support our client in establishing efficient and thorough engagement and communication strategies with stakeholders, including national authorities.

All along the E&S evaluation process, we provide support in obtaining permits and approvals from national environmental authorities.

Beyond an authority’s approval, managing engagement with local communities and their expectations is also crucial to facilitate a project’s acceptability. We organize public consultations for our clients in a wide range of contexts and perform interviews with key stakeholders in order to propose the most suitable stakeholder engagement strategies to our clients.

Our local partnerships make this process possible and allow us to adapt it more effectively to the local context.

Our in-house expertise in social impact management, assisted by our local social experts, mean that we can perform a large variety of social studies on: land management and access, subsistence strategies (agriculture, animal husbandry, fisheries, sand mining), gender issues and gender-based violence, group vulnerability, conflict and humanitarian issues, human rights and indigenous peoples.

We can perform health, heritage, human rights and gender impact assessments suited to the projects particular stakes and challenges.