LAW OF MONGOLIA

17^th of May, 2012  Ulaanbaatar city

ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT LAW /REVISED VERSION/

CHAPTER ONE

GENERAL 

Article 1.Purpose of the law 

1.1.The purpose of this law is to implement the Article 16.2 of the Constitutional Law of Mongolia, protect the environment, prevent the loss of the eco imbalance caused by the human activities, exploit the mineral resources with the minimal adverse impact on the environment, assess the environmental impact of the policies to be implemented within the region and industry, the development program, plan and the projects and make decisions and conclusions whether to implement them and arrange coordination between the stakeholders.

Article 2.The legislation of the environmental impact assessment

2.1.The legislation on environmental impact assessment shall consist of the Constitutional Law of Mongolia, Law on Environmental Protection, this law and other laws enacted in conformity therewith.

2.2.If the provisions of the international treaties to which Mongolia is a party are inconsistent with this law, the provisions of the international treaties shall prevail. 

Article 3.The definition of the law 

3.1.The definitions used in this law shall be understood as follows:

3.1.1.“Project” shall mean the plants, services, mining and construction that are to be implemented or already in operation and any operation that are designed to renovate and expand the foregoing;

3.1.2.“The project implementer’ shall mean that the legal body and citizen who is responsible for the project; 

3.1.3.“The strategic assessment of the environment’ shall mean the determination of the risk, adverse impact and result upon the environment, society and public in relation to the trends of the climate change and natural disastrous case disaster, dangerous phenomenon, accident, danger during the process of developing the development plan and program and policies to be implemented throughout the region and industry; 

/This paragraph was revised by the law 2 February, 2017/

3.1.4.“The assessment of environmental status”’ shall mean the determination of the environmental status of the local area, where the project will be implemented, during the development of feasibility study, drawings and designs of any project, national and regional, and sectoral development plan and program and identify critical environmental conditions and features that need to be considered when developing the program, plan and policy in the future;

3.1.5.“The cumulative impact assessment” shall mean determination of the joint and repeated adverse impacts on the public health caused by the projects implemented by the citizen, entity and organization throughout the certain area and define the methods and actions that assist elimination and mitigations of such impacts;

3.1.6.“The environmental impact assessment” shall mean the determination of potential adverse impacts on the environment, consequences of the projects implemented by the citizen, entity and organization throughout the certain area and define the methods and actions that assist elimination and mitigations of such impacts; 

3.1.7.“Assessment expert” shall mean the legal body who is authorized to review the assessment and assessment report as defined in Article 3.1.6 of this law and issue experts opinions accordingly; 

3.1.8.“The assessment review” shall mean the activity to issue experts opinion on whether the environmental impact assessment as specified in Article 3.1.6 of this law was in compliance with the applicable legislations, and whether report and conclusions are reasonable and correct;

3.1.9.“Expert opinion” shall mean the activity of preparing the experts opinion whether the environmental impact assessment report and conclusions are correct; 

3.1.10.“Risk assessment’ shall mean the activity of the determining the potential impacts of chemical, physical and biological factors upon the human, animal, plant and environment and impact of the disastrous cases disaster and danger; 

/This paragraph was revised by the law 2 February, 2017/

3.1.11.“Correspondent protection of the biological diversity” shall mean the activity of rehabilitating the biological diversity at different locations when the natural character, typology and living environment are affected by the project. 

CHAPTER TWO

STRUCTURE, ORGANIZATION AND COORDINATION OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT 

Article 4.The Environmental impact assessment

4.1.The following evaluation shall be included in the environmental impact assessment: 

4.1.1.The strategic assessment of the environment (strategic assessment);

4.1.2.The evaluation of the environmental status (assessment of status); 

4.1.3.The environmental impact assessment (impact assessment);

4.1.4.The assessment of cumulative impact.

4.2.The technical committee in charge of coordinating the environmental impact assessments, review and issue opinions on the reports and results of the environmental impact assessments as specified in the Article s 4.1.1, 4.1.4 and 7.1.2 of this law shall operate under the central administrative body in charge environmental affairs. 

4.3.The technical committee shall be formed by the resolution of the central administrative body in charge environmental affairs.

Article 5.The strategic assessment of the environment 

5.1.The line ministry that initiates and develops the policy, program and plan shall ensure the strategic assessment is conducted during the development of the document, and submit the assessment report along with the accompanying documents to the central administrative body in charge of environmental affairs prior to getting it reviewed at the cabinet meeting.

5.2.The strategic assessment shall be conducted by the professional organization that is authorized by the central administrative body in charge of environmental affairs, with the collaboration of the think tanks, independent expert and inspectors and prepare the report.

5.3.The detailed regulation on conducting strategic and cumulative impact assessments shall be approved by the Government. 

5.4.The strategic assessment report shall be reviewed by the technical committee and the opinions issued by the committee shall be presented at the Cabinet meeting by the Cabinet Member in charge of environmental affairs. 

5.5.The line ministry that implements the project and the central administrative body in charge of environmental affairs shall disclose the information on the strategic assessment opinions issued to public and post it on their website and ensure the printed copies are available for public review. 

Article 6.The status and cumulative impact assessment 

6.1.The project implementer is required to conduct the assessment according to the Article 3.1.4 of this law and potential impacts estimated. 

6.2.The project implementer is required to get involved with the authorized professional organization with the collaboration of the team of think tank, independent experts and inspectors to conduct the status assessment and if required approach the central administrative body in charge of environmental affairs for direction. 

6.3.The central administrative body in charge of environmental affairs shall conduct the assessment as specified in the Article 3.1.5 of this law upon the project that is being implemented by a citizen, entity and organization at certain locations with the involvement of the authorized professional organization.

6.4.When necessary, the Cabinet Member in charge of environmental affairs may appoint a technical team to conduct the assessment as specified in the Article 6.3 of this law.

6.5.The project implementer shall be responsible for the cost of conducting cumulative impact assessment subject to the range of the impact. 

6.6.The authorized professional organization shall deliver the developed report on the assessment of environmental status and cumulative impact to the technical committee in charge of assessment that come under the central administrative body in charge of environmental affairs for review. 

Article 7.Impact assessment

7.1.The impact assessment shall consists of the following: 

7.1.1.The general assessment of the environmental impact; and 

7.1.2.The detailed assessment of the environmental impact.

7.2.The general assessment of the environmental impact is required to be conducted prior to implementation of the project, owning the land, or utilizing the land for the purposes of running husbandry, exploration and exploitation of oil and minerals. 

7.3.The project implementer is required to prepare the feasibility study and design that are approved by the related authorized organization, the current status of the environment of the project implementing area, the proposal from the Governor of the soum or district and other related documents, and deliver them to the central administrative body in charge of environmental affairs or environmental department according to the appendix of this law and have the general assessment of the environmental impact conducted.

7.4.The expert shall undertake the general assessment of the environmental impact upon the planned or existing plants, services, construction and their renovation and expansion and mining projects within 14 working days and draw a conclusion as follows. 

7.4.1.Decline or return the project, where its techniques, technology and operation can be harmful to the environment, not reflected within the land utilization plan, and not in compliance with the strategic assessment conclusion and applicable legislations; 

7.4.2.Considering the project can be implemented without conducting the detailed environmental impact assessment on the certain conditions and term; 

7.4.3.Considering that it is required to conduct the detailed environmental impact assessment; 

7.5.When necessary, the time period that is determined in Article 7.4 of this law can be extended for another 14 days once, by the resolution of the principal expert as defined in Article 7.6 of this law. 

7.6.The assessment expert and the principal expert who is responsible for organizing their activities, shall be appointed by the resolution of the central administrative body in charge of environmental affairs based upon their professional capability and work experience. 

7.7.The regulation and methodology of the impact assessment shall be approved by the Government, and it shall reflect the related matters of the environmental impact assessment, analysis of the assessment, monitoring and activities of the technical committee, socio-economic and health impact assessment. 

Article 8.The detailed environmental impacts assessment 

8.1.The purpose, direction, scope and timeframe of the detailed assessment shall be clearly indicated within the conclusion that is defined within the Article 7.4.3 of this law. 

8.2.The detailed environmental impact assessment shall be conducted by the local organization that is authorized according to the Article 12 of this law. 

8.3.The authorized entity that is defined within the Article 8.2 of this law, shall prepare the report with the detailed environmental impact assessment and develop the environmental management plan. 

8.4.The following issues shall be reflected within the detailed environmental impact assessments: 

8.4.1.The typology of the environment of the project implementing area; 

8.4.2.The calculation and research findings of the potential and key adverse impacts, their intensity and consequences; 

8.4.3.The recommendation of the methodology to eliminate and minimize the potential and key adverse impact; 

8.4.4.The recommendation on the use of possible method and technology and utilization of the environmentally friendly plants and technology in order to minimize the adverse environmental impact caused by the project operation; 

8.4.5.The risk assessment upon the human health and environment caused by the project operation if it is required to conduct within the detailed environmental impact assessments; 

8.4.6.The close-up activity direction, rehabilitation purpose, scope, criteria and corresponding protective measures for the oil, mining and radioactive minerals projects; 

8.4.7.The purpose, scope and criterias of the environmental management plan; 

8.4.8.The proposal and meeting minutes of the local government, local assembly for the area where the project is going to be implemented; 

8.4.9.Other issues related to the historical and cultural findings on the project area and features of the project. 

8.5.It is required to reflect the official feedback provided by the project implementer in detailed environmental impact assessment report. 

8.6.The project implementer shall be responsible for the cost of the detailed environmental impact assessment. 

8.7.The entity, who has completed detailed environmental impact assessment shall hold the original copy of the primary material of the field survey and the results of the expert’s research and prepare four copies of the detailed environmental impact assessment report and each copy shall be retained by the central administrative body in charge of environmental affairs, project implementer and the Governor’s offices of the local area where the project is going to be implemented and by the entity and those copies shall have the same legal force. 

8.8.The environmental officer of the local area, the state environmental inspector, all Governors of every level, and the government agency in charge of geology and mining affairs shall monitor whether the project implementing citizen or the entity has conducted the environmental impact assessment.

Article 9.The environmental management plan 

9.1.The environmental management plan shall be developed by the organization who conducted detailed environmental impact assessment in order to protect the environment of the project area, utilize appropriately, rehabilitate, ensure the compliance of the strategic assessment recommendation, minimize, prevent and eliminate the adverse impact that is determined by the detailed environmental impact assessment, control and determine the potential consequences upon the project implementing environment. 

9.2.The environmental management plan is the essential part of the detailed environmental impact assessment.

9.3.The organization that conducted the general assessment shall approve the environmental management plan of the project and authorize the implementation. 

9.4.The central administrative body in charge of environmental affairs shall approve the methods and regulations for developing the environmental management plan and rehabilitation activity and an authorized organization shall approve the rehabilitation standards according to the applicable legislations.

9.5.The environmental management plan shall consist of the environmental protection plan and environmental monitoring program. 

9.6.The method of mitigating and eliminating the adverse impact that is determined by the detailed environmental impact assessment, corresponding protective measures, the required time and funding shall be included in the environmental management plan.

9.7.The environmental monitoring program shall reflect the monitoring and analyzing of the variation upon the environment that is caused by the project operation, reporting the results, the methods of implementation, required funding, cost and timeframe. 

9.8.The organization that conducted the general environmental impact assessment shall receive the annual implementation report of the environmental management plan of the project implementer by the end of December of every year and approve the following year’s plan and required resources and funding/costs. 

9.9.The project implementer, that is not defined in the Article 9.10 of this law, shall deposit 50 percent of the required costs for the annual implementation of the environmental management plan in the special account of the environmental protection and rehabilitation of the local governor as a guarantee to comply with the environmental protection duty and report the performance every year. 

9.10.The mining, smelting/wash plant, processing and chemical plant project implementer shall deposit the 50 percent of the required costs for the annual implementation of the environmental management plan in the special account of the environmental protection and rehabilitation of the central administrative body in charge of environmental affairs as a guarantee to comply with the environment protection duty every year. 

9.11.Based on the performance of the project implementer that is required by the impact assessment and annual environmental management plan of the operation and the performance of the close-up management plan that is defined within the Article 14.1.3 of this law, the funds deposited as defined in the Article 9.10 of this law shall be reimbursed to the project implementer according to the certain schedules. 

9.12.The environmental officer of the local area, the state environmental inspector, all Governors of every level, and the government agency in charge of geological and mining affairs shall monitor the implementation of the environmental management plan and the close-up management plan. 

9.13.If necessary, an independent audit shall be conducted upon the monitoring that is defined in the Article 9.12 of this law and the performance of the environmental management plan and rehabilitation work by the resolution of the organization who conducted the general environmental impact assessment and issue an audit opinion and the required cost for this work shall be borne by the project implementer.

9.14.The organization who conducted the general assessment shall resolve whether the project implementer be compensated the deposit placed as a guarantee as per the procedure specified in the Article 9.15 of this law, based on the performance report of the environmental management plan and the monitoring result of the Article s 9.12 and 9.13 of this law. 

9.15.The central administrative body in charge of environmental affairs shall approve the regulation on monitoring the specific account of environmental protection and rehibilitation that is defined in the Article s 9.9 and 9. 10 of this law. 

Article 10.The analysis of the detailed environmental impact assessment 

10.1.The organization who conducted the detailed environmental impact assessment shall deliver the assessment report along with the accompanying documents to the organization who conducted the detailed environmental impact assessment, within the timeframe set out in the detailed environmental impact assessment. 

10.2.The expert who receives the detailed environmental impact assessment report shall issue an opinion on the assessment within 18 working days of the receipt and when necessary, the principal expert of the central administrative body in charge of environmental affairs shall appoint the expertise team to conduct the assessment review on the report. 

10.3.The principal expert of the central administrative body in charge of environmental affairs can extend the period specified in the Article 10.2 of this law for up to 18 days for one time. 

10.4.The central administrative body in charge of environmental affairs shall decide whether the project can be implemented based on the proposal specified in the Article 18.4 of this law, the detailed environmental impact assessment report, the opinion issued by the expert and the technical committee, who conducted the expert review. 

10.5.The project implementer and the professional organization who conducted the assessment shall organize the activities to present the findings to the local community, where it will be affected by the project operation. 

10.6.The communication regarding the creation of the database for the environmental impact assessment shall be organized as per Chapter 7 of the Environmental protection law. 

Article 11.Monitoring and verification

11.1.The entity and organization, who is implementing the project based on the completion of the detailed environmental impact assessment and it was found that the operation causes or caused the damage to the human health and environment then monitoring and verification shall be conducted to verify if the assessment was adequately completed. 

11.2.The principal expert of the central administrative body in charge of environmental affairs shall set the timeline for preparation of the monitoring and verification report and each time appoint the working group that consists of the technical experts of related field. 

11.3.The professional organization who conducted the assessment shall be responsible for the cost required conducting the monitoring and verification and the cost shall be reimbursed by the party in breach based on the result of the monitoring and verification. 

11.4.The professional organization who conducted the assessment and the project implementer are required to immediately deliver the required documents to the central administrative body in charge of environmental affairs. 

11.5.If it was found that the detailed environmental impact assessment was done inadequately then it is required to conduct the re-assessment up to the required standard and during this period the central administrative body in charge of environmental affairs shall suspend the license for conducting the detailed environmental impact assessment for other projects. 

11.6.If it is determined that the additional work needs to be done, then the related cost shall be borne by the professional organization who conducted the assessment in the first instance.

Article 12.Issuing and terminating the license to engage in undertaking detailed environmental impact assessment 

12.1.The central administrative body in charge of environmental affairs shall issue the license, as defined in the Article 15.6.6 of the law on business licensing, to a Mongolian organization that meets the requirement defined in the Article 7.5 of the law on environmental protection. 

12.2.The following documents are required to be attached to the application for a license to engage in undertaking detailed environmental impact assessment: 

12.2.1.the introduction of the entity’s activity; 

12.2.2.the documents illustrating the database, facilities, human resources and capacity required to engage in assessment work. 

12.3.The technical committee shall review the capacity of the applicant who wants to engage in detailed environmental impact assessment within 28 working days and issue a resolution. 

12.4.The organization that is authorized to engage in detailed environmental impact assessment shall aim its activity towards the detailed environmental impact assessment.

12.5.The central administrative body in charge of environmental affairs shall authorize the entity to engage in the detailed evaluation of the environmental impact for 3 years based on the resolution issued by the technical committee. 

12.6.The entity shall deliver the application for a license renewal along with the performance report to the central administrative body in charge of environmental affairs 2 months prior to expiry date. 

12.7.The technical committee shall review the application and report defined here in Article 12.6 of this law and other information related to the environmental impact assessment and issue a resolution whether to extend the license to engage in detailed environmental impact assessment. 

12.8.The license to engage in detailed environmental impact assessment shall be renewed for another 3 years based on the resolution issued by the central administrative body in charge of environmental affairs.

CHAPTER THREE

DUTIES AND RIGHTS OF THE PARTIES INVOLVED IN THE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT 

Article 13.The rights of the project and program developer 

13.1.The project and program developer shall exercise the following rights:

13.1.1.to make the request for conducting strategic and impact assessment to the authority; 

13.1.2.to select the entity for conducting strategic and detailed impact assessment; 

13.1.3.to request the entity, who will conduct the strategic and impact assessment, to keep the confidentiality of the technical, technological and business information of the policy, program and project.

Article 14.The duties of the project and program implementer 

14.1.The project implementer and the organization that developed the program and plan to be included within the strategic assessment shall have the following duties: 

14.1.1.To provide the authority and authorized officials with the document relevant to the strategic and project impact assessment to be conducted on the policy, program and plan; 

14.1.2.To report and present the performance of the environmental management plan to the local community, local governor’s office, the parties affected by the project and related central administrative body in a timely manner;

14.1.3.The oil and mining projects shall develop the rehabilitation and close up plan at least 3 years before the operation starts and closes and collect the proposals from the central administrative body in charge of sectoral affairs and submit it to the central administrative body in charge of environmental affairs. 

Article 15.The license to engage in conducting detailed environmental impact assessment

15.1.The organization that is authorized to engage in detailed environmental impact assessment shall exercise the following rights:

15.1.1.To receive the documents required for conducting detailed environmental impact assessment from the project implementer; 

15.1.2.to access and collect the sample without any disturbance if it requires to do so when conducting detailed environmental impact assessment; 

15.1.3.to monitor the implementation of the environmental management plan which reflects the results of the detailed environmental impact assessment, and when necessary, to recommend the relevant central administrative body on whether to continue the project.

Article 16.The duties of the organization that is authorized to conduct the detailed environmental impact assessment

16.1.The organization that is authorized to conduct the detailed environmental impact assessment shall have the following duties: 

16.1.1.it is permitted to use the previous assessments and research results and conduct the additional studies in order to determine them; 

16.1.2.make amendment to the report of the detailed environmental impact assessment in accordance with the review and recommendation;

16.1.3.To be responsible for the correctness and adequacy of the detailed environmental impact assessment; 

16.1.4.To keep the confidentiality of the information on fleet, technology and business of the project. 

16.2.The organization that is authorized to conduct detailed environmental impact assessment shall control the risks associated with assessment in accordance with the law and legislations on Insurance.

Article 17.The duties of the banks, financial and investment institutions 

17.1.Bank, financial and investment institutions are required not to invest, finance and/or loan to any operation and services those are harmful to the environment, society and human health.

CHAPTER FOUR

THE COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT 

Article 18.The community involvement in the impact assessment

18.1.The central administrative body in charge of environmental affairs shall disclose the information on the development program and plan that requires the strategic assessment or the projects that were included in the environmental impact assessment through its website. 

18.2.The feedback shall be obtained from the public in the course of conducting strategic assessment on the development program and plan that is planned to be implemented by the Government.

18.3.The timeline for collecting the feedback from the public to include in the strategic assessment shall be no more than 30 working days and the feedback can be given verbally or written form. 

18.4.During the process of preparing report, the legal body, that is undertaking project detailed impact assessment shall organize the meeting and collect the feedback from the local authority and community who will be affected by the project. 

18.5.The community involvement affair shall be regulated by the regulation; and the regulation shall be approved by the Cabinet Member in charge of environmental affairs. 

CHAPTER FIVE

MISCELLANEOUS

Article 19.Liabilities for violation of law

19.1.Unless an official who has breached this law is subject to the criminal liability, he or she shall be held liable under the Law on Public Service.

19.2.An individual, legal person who has breached this law is subject to the liability in accordance with Criminal Law or Law on Offence.

/This Article has been revised by the law of 04 December, 2015/

Article 20.Compensation of the damage

20.1.The damages to the environment that have been caused by the act of implementing the project without first conducting the environmental impact assessment or violation of the requirements established by the assessment shall be estimated using the methodology that is approved by the central administrative body in charge of environmental affairs and compensated by the person in breach. 

20.2.The damages to the environment that have been caused by the incorrect performance of the detailed environmental impact assessment shall be compensated by the authorized entity or organization who conducted the detailed environmental impact assessment.

SPEAKER OF THE PARLIAMENT DEMBEREL.D OF MONGOLIA 

The appendix to the law on environmental impact assessment 

THE CLASSIFICATION OF THE PROJECTS THAT REQUIRE GENERAL ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT 

--- o0o ---