Latin America and the Caribbean:
Environmental Compliance

As a federal government agency, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is subject to applicable U.S. environmental laws, regulations, Executive Orders and procedures that ensure the wise use of the taxpayer's money. Effective implementation of these through state of the art environmental impact assessment ensures that the development activities USAID undertakes are not only economically sustainable but are protective of the world's environment on which we and future generations all depend.

Implementation and compliance within USAID is coordinated and enforced by a team of professional environmental staff led by the Agency Environmental Coordinator and a network of Bureau Environmental Officers, Regional Environmental Advisors and Mission Environmental Officers.

The Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) Bureau has compiled the following references to facilitate environmental compliance. Also see the LAC Initial Environmental Examination (IEE) Tracker to locate environmental reviews of all USAID activities in the LAC region.

USAID implements environment programs in compliance with various regulations, many of which are referenced below.

• Agency-wide Environmental Compliance database
• Environmental Procedures
• Environmental Guidelines
• Other Compliance Resources

1. Agency-wide Environmental Compliance database http://www.usaid.gov/our_work/environment/compliance/index.html

   You can use the database to:

   1. Search to find the approved environmental documents for specific projects. This can be very useful prior to making site visits or when preparing the Environmental Compliance section of the Annual Report.
   2. Help find examples of approved reviews in a particular sector (e.g., agriculture, health, microfinance), using the Advanced Search tab to search by sector across all Bureaus.
   3. Find all approved documents for a specific country, regardless of the originating Bureau.
   4. Use the Bureau tab to limit results to those documents approved by your own Bureau’s BEO.
   5. Conduct targeted searches using a particular phrase or key words; the “Document Text Search” function in the Advanced Tab uses Google to perform a text search across all documents.

2. Environmental Procedures
   1. USAID Environmental Procedures
   • En español: (Word, 178K)
   • En français: (Word, 39K)
   2. Relevant Chapters of USAID's Automated Directives System, which guide environmental compliance of program implementation
      • ADS 204: Environmental Procedures (PDF, 102K)
      • ADS 312.5.3E: Pesticides (PDF, 189K)
   3. Overview of USAID Environmental Compliance Procedures (Developed for PL-480 Programs) (PDF, 288K)
   4. Entire Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 as amended (PDF, 4MB)
      1. Section 117 (Environment and Natural Resources)
      2. Section 118 (Tropical Forests)
      3. Section 119 (Endangered Species)
      4. Part I, Chapter 7 (Debt for Nature Exchanges)
      5. Part IV, (Enterprise for the American Initiative)
      6. Part V (Tropical Forestry Conservation Act)
      7. LAC Tropical Forest and Biodiversity FAA 118/119 Country Analyses
   5. Agency Tropical Forestry Report (PDF, 701K)

3. Environmental Guidelines
   1. USAID Environmental Guidelines for Development Activities in Latin America and the Caribbean (December 2003, Final)
   2. Agriculture and the Environment Volume I: Introduction and Commodities

4. Other Compliance Resources
1. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, laws & regulations homepage
2. National Environmental Policy Act
3. Executive Orders
   1. 13028 and 13131: Implementation of the Enterprise for the Americas Initiative (PDFs, 61K and 60K, respectively)
   2. 13089: Coral Reef Protection (PDF, 65K)
   3. 13112: Invasive Species (PDF, 68K)
   4. 13158: Marine Protected Areas (PDF, 138K)
   5. 12114: Environmental Effects Abroad of Major Federal Actions
4. 22 USC Section 262m: Governing Procedures for USAID Environmental Impact Monitoring of Multilateral Development Banks
5. Export-Import Bank Act of 1945 as amended
6. Public Law 480, Food For Peace Act, Title VI - Enterprise for the Americas Initiative, Additional Legislation