Industrial environmental management

The project, to be implemented by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), includes a pollution reduction initiative, a policy studies and public/private dialogue component, and institutional strengthening. Working cooperatively with geographically concentrated firms within selected industrial sectors, the project will analyze pollution problems and seek to develop remedial actions. Pollution management appraisals (PMA"s) -- plant evaluations in which specialists work together with industry personnel on ways to reduce pollution -- will be the principal method employed. The first round of PMA"s, around 150 of which are targeted, will cover two major sources of pollution: agro-industries (e.g., piggeries, poultry farms, coconut processors, and fish canneries) and semiconductor plants. In addition to PMA"s, the project will conduct an environmental risk assessment (ERA) across a broad spectrum of industries in order to help the DENR improve its policies and regulations, with a focus on the five industrial sectors that pose the highest social cost from pollution. The ERA will also identify those industries in need of PMA"s. The project will support a wide range of policy analyses to identify how legal and regulatory controls on industrial pollution can be improved. Specific issues to be examined include, inter alia, regulatory structure, incentives and disincentives to voluntary pollution control, decentralization, and market-based instruments for industrial pollution management. To complement the above activity, the project will increase public awareness about industrial pollution through industry associations and other pertinent private organizations and the establishment of citizens" discussion and participation groups. Targets include five public/private fora in industrial environmental management issues. Institutional strengthening will consist of training, most of which will be conducted in the Philippines by local and expatriate experts through 1 or 2 week workshops employing manuals developed by U.S. industrial pollution management trainers. Training will target professionals in the public and private sectors and relevant interest groups, with a specific focus on pollution control officers at industrial firms. Specific training programs will be in six areas: PMA"s (200 trainees), ERA (60), data and sample collection protocols (300), compliance audits (200), compliance monitoring (200), and environmental impact assessment (700).