Reflections on environmental license in road infrastructure projects Colombia-Ecuador

Abstract

Road infrastructure is fundamental to the growth of a country, allowing the advancement of urban and rural development. In these projects, the Colombian and Ecuadorian states apply a legal-technical environmental territorial planning instrument called “environmental license”, aimed at preventing or minimizing negative impacts on the community, the environment and the economy. The obtaining of the environmental license is mediated by studies that allow to evaluate the impacts generated to the socioeconomic and physical environment. The licensing process in Colombia presents difficulties due to changing legislation, and the need for technical understanding of the general guidelines for the development and implementation of environmental impact studies. Faced with such deficiencies, this work seeks to reflect on the procedure for granting licenses, to observe similarities, differences, deficiencies or complementarities, which serve as support for the formulation of proposals for strengthening the process.