Environmental Impact Assessment
Senior 6 · Entrepreneurship
Environmental Impact Assessment
Lesson 3 of 4
25 min
A coffee cooperative in Nyamasheke District wants to build a washing station where its members' red cherries will be pulped, fermented, washed and dried. The best site is on a gentle slope, close to the farms and close to a stream, because washing coffee takes a lot of water. The cooperative's manager knows that pulping water is heavily loaded with sugars and acids from the fruit, and that people downstream use the stream. (An illustrative project.)
What exactly must the cooperative do, in what order, before it may pour the first concrete? This lesson follows the procedure step by step, as the Rwanda Development Board (RDB) sets it out.
Every country's EIA system follows the same logic, even if the names differ:
| Stage | Question it answers |
|---|---|
| Screening | Does this project need an EIA at all, and how detailed? |
| Scoping | Which impacts and alternatives matter most, and must be studied? |
| Baseline study | What is the environment like now, before the project? |
| Impact prediction and evaluation | What will change, how much, and how serious is it? |
| Mitigation and management plan | How will harmful impacts be avoided, reduced or repaired, by whom and at what cost? |
| Reporting and public consultation | Are the findings written up and shared with the people affected? |
| Review and decision | Is the study good enough, and should the project go ahead, with what conditions? |
| Monitoring and audit | Are the conditions being met once the project is running? |
Definition
Screening: deciding whether a proposed project needs an EIA and at what level of detail. Scoping: deciding which issues, impacts and alternatives the EIA must study, usually written as terms of reference (ToR) for the experts.
Example: screening shows the washing station needs a full EIA; scoping lists water use, wastewater, coffee pulp, odours and downstream users as the issues to study.
RDB's official procedures portal sets out the steps below for an environmental and social impact assessment, with Law N° 48 of 2018 on environment and Ministerial Order N° 003/MoE/25 of 19 August 2025 as its legal basis.
| Level | What the developer receives from RDB |
|---|---|
| Level 1 | A letter of approval (non-objection clearance). The process ends. |
| Level 2: partial EIA | A letter of approval and an environmental management plan with the necessary guidelines |
| Level 3: full EIA | Terms of reference for the EIA study and a list of EIA experts, so that a full study can be carried out |
Documents at the application stage include a project brief, the terms of reference for the ESIA study, site layout plans, a land ownership document, location maps, a panoramic view of the site and proof of identity. For projects that must build, the EIA certificate is later one of the documents RDB requires before it issues a construction permit.
The list of projects is set by the Ministerial Order. For buildings, Ngoma District's environmental and social management plan for new school classrooms (March 2026) summarises the 2025 order's thresholds like this:
| Building (including schools) | Required |
|---|---|
| Capacity of more than 500 persons, or total floor area of more than 1,500 m² | Full ESIA |
| Capacity of 200 to 500 persons, or total floor area of 1,000 m² to 1,500 m² | Partial ESIA |
Tip
Screening asks "whether", scoping asks "what". Screening decides IF a project needs an EIA (and at which level); scoping decides WHAT the EIA must study. In Rwanda's procedure, the site visit does the screening and the terms of reference do the scoping.
Worked example 1: the washing station, step by step
Suppose RDB screens the Nyamasheke washing station as Level 3. Describe what happens at each step. (Illustrative.)
Worked example 2: applying the building thresholds
Using the thresholds above, decide what each building needs.
(a) A secondary school block for 650 students with a floor area of 1,200 m². Capacity : a full ESIA, even though the area alone would only call for a partial one. Either condition is enough.
(b) A church hall for 300 people with a floor area of 900 m². Capacity is between 200 and 500: a partial ESIA.
(c) A health post for 120 people with a floor area of 1,600 m². Area : a full ESIA, although its capacity is small.
(d) A shop for 30 customers with a floor area of 200 m². Below both thresholds quoted here; RDB's screening decides whether any assessment is needed.
Rule used: read BOTH conditions ("or"): a building meets a threshold if either its capacity or its floor area reaches it, and the stricter result applies.
Warning
Starting work before the certificate is the costliest shortcut. Under Article 30 of Law N° 48 of 2018, a listed project must have its assessment approved before it is implemented, and RDB asks for the certificate before a construction permit. Building first risks a stop order, penalties, redesign and angry neighbours. Also remember that the certificate carries conditions: signing them is a promise that the environmental audit will check.
Zimbabwe Environmental Law Organisation (ZELA), "The EIA Process" (about 4 minutes). Watch for the stages from screening to monitoring and for where the public takes part. The institutions named are Zimbabwe's; in Rwanda, RDB reviews the ESIA and issues the certificate, and REMA oversees environmental audits.
Practice
Sources and credits
Written by Ganzaa: the Nyamasheke washing-station case, the flowchart, the tables, the worked examples and the practice items. The cooperative and its project are illustrative (2026).
