Expert Review of Borrowers ESIA Report, 10,000 Hectares Commercial Plantation Scheme, Cambodia
SLP Environmental was appointed as the lenders technical advisor by a leading Global Asset Management company to provide expert peer review and professional advisory services with respect to a potential investment in a 10,000 hectare commercial plantation scheme located in Ratanakiri Province in North East Cambodia.
Our client was considering investing in the scheme and as part of their due diligence process instructed SLP Environmental to conduct a peer review and gap analysis of the borrowers ESIA study with the primary objectives of:
SLP also provided a detailed Legal Register for the scheme that clearly identified all environmental and social regulatory requirements pertaining to large commercial plantation schemes developed in Cambodia.
SLP’s technical review revealed significant shortcomings in the borrowers ESIA study, most notably that several significant adverse environmental and socio-economic impacts were not identified in the study and consequently no impact mitigation measures for these likely impacts were proposed.
Foremost amongst the findings was that the project developer had made no attempt to obtain the Free Prior and Informed Consent (FRIC) of the affected communities of indigenous peoples located within the projects area of influence.
SLP Environmental assessed that the proposed plantation scheme would be categorized as an Equator Principles Category A project and recommended that further detailed environmental and socio-economic cultural studies were completed and the ESIA significantly upgraded before any investment decision is made.