Industriallivestock production holdings have permanent or potential impact on theenvironment, which means it is obligatory for them to draw upenvironmental impact reports and to obtain decisions on environmentalconditions for investment permits. However, it is often the case thatthe reports submitted by investors, and the environmental impactassessment procedures are of low quality.
The most common defaults in the environmental impact assessment procedures are as follows:
- Discrepancies between information provided in environmental impact reports andrequests for integrated permits with the actual state of theenvironment, caused by insufficient qualifications of the individualswho draft these documents, use of incorrect methods, or intentionaldefaults;
- The 'in or out' pattern of defining investment variants, taking intoaccount only two possible outcomes - implementation of investment ornon-implementation of investment, without reviewing other investmentvariants, i.e. different locations, changes in livestock size, ortechnological conditions of animal rearing;
- Insufficient or badly planned mitigating measures (compensatory measures);
- Irregularities in or absence of public consultations;
- Limited access of local communities to administrative procedures involving the investment process;
- Lackof clarity and uniformity in the operations of the Public InformationBulletin (BIP) and institutions responsible for environmental impactassessments;
- Environmental protection measures other than NATURA 2000 are marginalised;
- Lack of vision for sustainable development vision in the context of the investment process;
- Incompetence of public officers (especially at local level);
- Routine approach to different cases (investments) by public officers;
- Unwillingness on the part of public officers and investors to cooperate with NGOs.