Monitoring Environmental Impact

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Monitoring environmental impact gives project managers and communities critical information on project performance and should be given the same attention as social or economic monitoring. The monitoring of environmental impacts can be built into the overall project monitoring process. To assess the effectiveness of environmental monitoring, two basic questions should be answered:

• Do the various measures proposed for dealing with impacts seem to be having the desired effect?
• Does the project or programme appear to be having any significant environmental impacts other than those anticipated during the design phase? (Danida 1994:31).

The Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA) has a policy which requires that EAs be conducted throughout the life of a project. Projects that generate new components or increase in size are continually assessed as they change. Since most community projects start small and grow larger, especially the successful ones, Danida's approach could prove useful for community projects that expand and diversity over time.

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