Notice of Grace Period Expiration for Environmental Practitioners’ Registration and Certification

Pursuant to Section 38 of the Environmental Assessment Act, No 10 of 2011, the Botswana Environmental Assessment Practitioners Association (BEAPA) wishes to inform prospective environmental assessment practitioners that they have until 30th April 2013 to register and be certified afterwhich it will be a criminal offence to practice without certification. A fine not exceeding P50 000, or imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years, or both, is the prescribed penalty for first offenders in terms of Section 70 of the above mentioned Act.

For application forms and detailed application guidance please refer to www.beapa.org.bw or send email with “Request for Application Package” on the subject line to . Note that a practitioner is a person who coordinates EIA assessments for submission to the Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA) and does not include people who provide specialist inputs into the EIA process.

Applicant assessment meeting dates are as follows: 14th and 15th March 2013; 10th May 2013; 12th July 2013; 04th October 2013; and 13th December 2013; 07th February 2014; and 14th March 2014. Only submissions received a fortnight before the meeting date will be considered in that meeting.

Notice is also hereby given to Property Developers and Project Managers that pursuant to Section 4 of the Environmental Assessment Act, No 10, of 2011, after 30th April 2013 implementation of all projects, programmes, plans or policies shall be preceded by an environmental impact assessment unless exemption has been granted by the Minister in terms of Section 3 of the same Act.

Government Departments and Local Authorities are also informed that pursuant to Section 5 of the Environmental Assessment Act, No 10, of 2011 any authority vested with the responsibility of issuing permits, licenses, consent or approval for any of the activities prescribed under Section 3 of the same Act shall ensure that authorisation has been issued for the proposed activity in accordance with this Act.

BEAPA is a professional not-for-profit Association that registers and certifies Environmental Assessment Practitioners (EAPs) in Botswana.