Mexico's environmental assessment experience

Abstract Mexico is a North American developing country that has growing industrial and urban activity. Traditionally, great projects have been proposed and evaluated with financial, economic, and technical criteria, without considering their environmental implications. Because of significant ecological and socioeconomic impacts, environmental impact assessment (EIA) has been applied in Mexico since 1977. Important changes have occurred in the country because of the existence of new laws, regulations, guidelines, and instructions that support the studies and evaluations as well as the presence of governmental agencies in charge of the implementation of proceedings for the approval or rejection of projects. In spite of the obvious advances some problems still exist—for instance, the relatively restricted public involvement and participation in the EIA institutional proceedings, a lack of appropriately trained personnel, and budget, information, and time constraints. The main purpose of this paper is to present a preliminary analysis on how environmental impact assessment has evolved in Mexico and to propose certain measures that could be taken to improve its performance.