Environmental
Impact Assessment process in Sri Lanka is 40 years old. This was introduced in
1980 through the National Environmental Act no 47 of 1980. Central
environmental Authority is the main responsible agency for implementing this
process. The main objective of the Central Environmental Authority is to
oversee development activities/efforts in the country for possible
environmental damages as well as social and economic concerns. However, CEJ
identified that there are limited opportunities available to learn about this
process which limits the effectiveness of this process. Therefore, Centre
for Environmental Justice is consistently working towards promoting and
raising awareness on the EIA process in Sri Lanka. As another step in this
effort, a three-day residential training program was organized from the 22nd
to 24th of January 2020 at the Chinthana Training
Centre, Nainamadama. Participants were government servants including
divisional secretaries, district secretaries, planning officers, land officers,
environmental officers, forest officers, Irrigation officers, engineers &
CSO representatives. This was another successful workshop that was organized by
the Centre for Environmental Justice.