Session Description
Over the past five decades, impact assessment has become a key instrument of environmental governance. Conceived as a decision-support process, its purpose is to anticipate the environmental, social and economic consequences of development and contribute to better public decisions.
As systems have evolved, legal frameworks, institutions, technical requirements and procedures have expanded, strengthening transparency, accountability and legal certainty. Yet a fundamental question remains: are we still assessing impacts, or have some systems shifted their focus toward regulatory and procedural compliance?
This interactive session will bring Latin American experience into dialogue with other regions. Through a collaborative game, each table will assess the same project in a different territory and under a distinct regulatory context. Participants will explore how context shapes significance, evidence, uncertainty and decision-making. The puzzle pieces will draw on invited abstracts presenting comparative cases, regulatory experiences, methods, professional practices or educational approaches. Melina Santomauro and Daniela Picardi, based in Buenos Aires, will collaborate in designing the activity.
The game will promote comparisons among the different situations and with Latin American experience. The final discussion will identify common patterns, contextual differences and lessons for Latin America and other regions, while highlighting the systems thinking, interdisciplinary capacities and professional judgement needed to keep impact assessment focused on supporting better decisions in complex and uncertain contexts.
Session Summary
This interactive session uses a collaborative game to evaluate the same project across different territories and regulatory contexts. The summaries prepared by experts will serve as a guide for comparisons with Latin America, showing how context, systems thinking, and professional judgment influence decisions.
Additional Information
Working in multinational teams will allow participants to compare how the same project is evaluated in other regions versus Latin America. This direct comparison will reveal how legal, institutional, and cultural contexts influence evidence, priorities, uncertainty, and decision-making. It will also foster a systemic understanding of environmental, social, economic, and governance interrelationships, demonstrating that a robust impact assessment requires more than regulatory compliance: it demands integrated analysis, interdisciplinary dialogue
Session Chair
Mireya Archila
Geoambiente
Guatemala
Session Co-chair
Veronica Giberti
UNPILAR / FAUBA ARGENTINA
Argentina