INERCO Peru advises on the development of environmental management instruments (EMI) during the COVID-19

INERCO has held a webinar on the Development of Environmental Management Instruments (EMI) with the new scenario brought about by the world pandemic of COVID-19, aimed at the Peruvian market. In particular, essential documents such as the physical, environmental and biological baseline, the socio-economic and cultural baseline and the Citizen Participation Plan were addressed, as well as the new stage that is opening up for their development with this health alert situation.

This online seminar was attended by Carlos Alonso Rodríguez Pardo, deputy director of Environmental Instruments, Permits and Procedures of the National Environmental Licensing Authority of Colombia (ANLA). The high position of the Colombian environmental authority broke down the strategy that they are carrying out to continue in administrative normality and to avoid the delay in the evaluation and follow-up of the projects under their competence.

Melissa Sulca, Director of Social Management and Community Relations at INERCO Peru, gave a tour of the transcendental changes generated by COVID-19 in the social field of projects. The need to implement rules of distance and avoid contact that has brought with it the arrival of new digital tools, “such as connection via the Internet through various platforms and other communication tools that allow for the collection of information, such as the implementation of citizen participation processes, both in urban and rural areas,” said the INERCO expert.

Luis Quevedo, Technical Advisor of INERCO Peru, analyzed the different existing Environmental Management Instruments (EMI) and the changes produced by the pandemic for its current development, “especially in processes as essential as an Environmental Study, where the field work, both physical and biological, is clearly affected by this new situation”.

Roberto Cárdenas, Director of the Environmental Studies Area of INERCO Colombia, presented the Colombian example of how quarantine has amplified the connection in the field of environmental studies. Thus, solutions such as virtual meetings through online platforms “have become essential to maintain activity and allow projects to move forward”. A different case is that of the characterizations of the area carried out in the field phase, “which have needed and still need clear biosafety protocols for action and prevention for professionals and communities, but which are still perfectly feasible”.