Experiences of the EIA-Society in Practical Application of EIA in Germany

독일 환경영향평가학회의 역할

The German society for promotion of EIA was founded in 1987 with the aim to support the introduction of EIA in Germany. The society with its center in Hamm where there is a plenty collection of literature, studies and further scientific sources does an enormous work in EIA-consulting all over the country. This work practically is done without any governmental support, only by private activities. The EIA society is structured within 9 regional as well as 19 specialized working groups and consisits of about 1,000 members. The unification of Germany in 1989/90 also influenced the development in this field, of course. While in the former Western part of Germany the already existing environmental administrations were able to react on the EIA-law of 1990 with their long time experiences, in the Eastern part the corresponding structures must be built up newly from the beginning. Since 1990 a great number of interested people also from Eastern Germany became numbers of the EIA-Society. By them an additional pool of knowledge and activity was brought into the society. This also applies for methods and means of EIA which were developed in the East during the time ago independently.