Environmental and Social Assesment

ENCON have been providing impact assessment and management services since it was established in 1994 and proved to be one of the best companies in this field. We are proud of working for most challenging projects and successfully completing our tasks that serve for the realization of these projects in an environmentally sound way (in terms of design, construction and operation). Environmental (and social) impact assessment (ESIA) is a worldwide accepted environmental management tool for sustainable development as declared in the Earth Summit in Rio (1992). As one of our core specialization areas we are providing ESIA and environmental management services; including due diligence on environmental, health and safety issues, resettlement and cultural heritage management, natural resources management and monitoring, for major development projects in mainly the sectors of energy, infrastructure, mining, transport, chemicals and oil and gas.

We assist our clients for managing their impacts on environmental, social and cultural resources and the local people from planning to decommissioning of their projects and plans. By considering all these issues and environmental management measures during the planning phase; the project approvals and finance could be obtained without delays and environmental objectives are achieved together with the project objectives with minimum external costs.

During all of its studies and assignments, ENCON takes the local and cultural sensitivities into account and uses state of the art methods and tools such as geographic information systems (GIS) and remote sensing, air dispersion, noise and water quality modeling and visualization/simulation techniques. ENCON has significant experience in socio-economic assessment and resettlement action planning. Our services in this context can be summarized as socio-economic baseline surveys, assessment of the social impacts of projects on local affected communities, social and rural development, and resettlement action (RAP) and implementation plans. RAP studies mainly aim to plan and develop the project-specific framework for compensation and where necessary resettlement of the project affected people (PAPs), taking into account their losses of assets, livelihood and incomes, such that their livelihood is at least restored to the level previous to the project. ENCON conducts social studies (e.g. surveys, impact assessment, RAP, etc.) with a professional team composed of its permanent staff and long term consultants. Our success is based on effective communication and building up trust with all stakeholders.

Our work does not only include planning, but also implementation and monitoring. In the fields of environmental, social, resettlement, biodiversity/natural resources and cultural heritage management, ENCON conducts planning, design, implementation and monitoring studies. In addition, environmental auditing services are an important part of the environmental management services we provide to the industrial facilities. In various projects we perform as the consultant/engineer of the developer, owner, competent authority or the financer. Furthermore, some of our work in these areas includes applied research. ENCON actively cooperates and team up with the competent experts and consultants (e.g. consulting companies, universities, non-governmental agencies) based on the requirements and complexity of its projects. We developed the culture of collaboration and cooperation with the project engineers (such as designers), project owners, and the competent authorities as required by the line of business we work. In addition, stakeholder management became an integral part of our services.

Stakeholder management is one of ENCON’s important study areas being generally an integral part of our environmental consulting and management work. The comprehensive and project tailored approach of ENCON deserves specific attention. Our work on stakeholder management starts with identification and analysis of stakeholders for any specific case (project, plan, program or institution). Then, proper planning for communication, including information disclosure and consultation, with all relevant stakeholders is of significant importance. Communication means are based on local and international requirements and needs and might include preparation and distribution of information documents, such as leaflets and brochures, announcements in public media (including world wide web), public meetings, focus group meetings, key-informant surveys, household surveys and establishment of information offices and/or call lines.

ENCON conducts socio-economic surveys and public consultation and disclosure activities with well trained staff under the supervision of experienced experts. The main factors of success for ENCON’s work in this area is based on effective and open communication considering the local conditions, and building up trust with whom we relate with.

One important component in stakeholder management is the grievance mechanism to be used. With its experience in large development projects, ENCON develop case specific grievance mechanisms relevant to be used according to the type and location of projects. In addition, we provide training and capacity building assistance for the implementation of these mechanisms and overall management of stakeholders throughout the lifetime of the projects.

Capacity building and training is a key for the success of institutions related to its responsibilities and for the sustainability of many development projects. ENCON provides institutional capacity building assistance to public and private sector clients in the field of environmental management. Depending on the needs of our clients, these services are sometimes formulated as special projects for capacity building and sometimes they are a part of overall project services. In this scope, we can summarize our activities as follows:

• Establishment of project implementation units.
  
• Establishment of information and training centers
  
• Assessment of environmental management capacity.
  
• Preparation of policies and guidelines.
  
• Development of databases and information management systems (including web based portals).
  
• Preparation of training (courses) and information sharing documents.
  
• Organizing and conducting workshops, training seminars, and on-the job training activities/schemes.