The NEW PROCEDURAL APPROACH

Figure 1 - Three steps of the determination of the environmental damage.

The CAED project primarily introduces a novel procedural approach for determining environmental damage under the ELD regime. It delineates three key stages of the assessment process: screening of the case, determination of clues, and determination of evidence.

Hence, the ascertainment can be divided into three steps of actions:

1. The screening of cases of possible environmental damage and imminent threat of damage under ELD (to identify whether there are actual (or potential) adverse effects on natural resources)¹
2. The determination of clues of environmental damage and imminent threats of damage for the identification of candidate environmental damage and imminent threat of damage cases under ELD (to establish whether there may be actual (or potential, in case of imminent threat) significant/sustained adverse effects on natural resources)
3. The determination of evidence of environmental damage and imminent threats of damage for the confirmation of cases of significant environmental damage and imminent threat of damage (to confirm whether there are actual significant adverse effects on natural resources (i.e. confirmed ELD cases for ELD resources)).

Figures 1 and 2 show the new procedural approach proposed by CAED project in a three step sequence of actions (Fig. 1) and in a general process diagram contextualizing these three key stages of the environmental damage assessment procedure under the ELD (FIg. 2)².