Environment & Safety Regulations

This page sets out the Government of Ethiopia’s legal framework for the sustainability aspects of any mining or petroleum project, including the environment, safety, and labour. This includes the legal requirement that projects undertake an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). It also explains the roles and mandates of the various state actors charged with oversight responsibility for the sustainability performance of companies.

Ethiopia is committed to economic growth that is environmentally sensitive.

As the Constitution makes clear, the people of Ethiopia have a right to improved living standards, as well as a right to participate in national development and, in particular, to be consulted with respect to policies and projects affecting their community.

Ethiopian citizens also have the right to a clean and healthy environment. If they have been displaced or adversely affected by state approved projects, they have the right to commensurate monetary or alternative means of compensation, which could include relocation with adequate state assistance.

The Environment, Forest and Climate Change Commission (EFCCC), formerly the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), is the Federal institution managing Ethiopia’s environment. It is an independent authority, acting outside the main ministerial structures and reporting directly to the Prime Minister.

For mining or petroleum projects, the EFCCC delegates responsibility for administering Environmental and Social Impact Assessments to either the MoMP’s Petroleum, Environment and Climate Change Directorate, or to regional governments, depending on the project in question.

Ethiopia’s Regional Governments all have established Environmental Bureaus, though they have each have different names and statuses depending on the region. These bureaus are responsible for evaluating the Environment Impact Assessments of all projects that fall under the jurisdiction of the regional governments, as opposed to the Federal Government. The Regional Governments both monitor and enforce Federal environmental standards and also, when appropriate, issue and implement their own no less stringent environmental standards. They also ensure that Artisanal miners are meeting their (less strict) environmental obligations.

Regional governments handle ESIA reports for:

The MoMP’s Petroleum, Environment and Climate Change Directorate (ECCDs) handles ESIAs for:

The ECCD has other responsibilities beyond dealing with ESIAs and ensuring compliance. It also is responsible for all environmental, community development, climate change and occupational health and safety related issues in the mining or petroleum sectors.

It is also via the ECCD that the MoMP promotes environmental protection, and establishes environmental and social regulations. It also promotes the sustainable use of environmental resources and works to avoid of possible conflicts of interest between developers and communities.

For more detail about the ECCD and its responsibilities please see Environmental Impact Assessment Proclamation (Proc. No. 299/2002).

Under Ethiopian law, any mining or petroleum project is required to undertake an Environmental Impact Assessment or EIA. Any project that alters any part of Ethiopia’s environmental, social, economic or cultural conditions is required to obtain approval from the relevant authority before it is allowed to proceed.

A company wishing to initiate a project is first required to conduct an Environmental Impact Assessment, and then submit to a report on this assessment to the ECCD (or the relevant regional agency) for review. This report should be written up after consulting any communities likely to be affected by the project, and should contain a summary written in non-technical language so that it is accessible and transparent.

At a minimum, an Environmental Impact Assessment and its study report should explain:

By law, the ECCD (or the relevant regional agency responsible) is required to issue a response within 15 working days of receiving the report.

They can either:

Please see Environmental Impact Assessment Proclamation no. 299/2002 for more detail.

The ECDD (or Regional Government) will only approve a project if it believes that the ESIA report sufficiently establishes either that the project will not have a negative impact on the environment or that sufficient measures are in place to avoid or mitigate the negative impacts it will have. Once the ECCD (or Regional Government) is confident of this, it will issue an environmental approval letter. This environmental approval letter is necessary for obtaining a Special Small Scale, Small Scale, or Large Scale Mineral Operations License.

Ethiopia has also issued two sets of guidelines to help mining or petroleum companies conduct their assessments, and submit a report that has the best chance of being approved.

The first guideline is the EIA Reporting Guide, which is written for any company required to submit and environmental impact assessment. It lays out the sections that must be included in the submitted report to give companies a good idea of the kind of information required and the way the report must be structured.

The second guideline is the EIA Guideline for Mineral and Petroleum Operation Projects.

This guideline is written for mining and petroleum companies specifically, and contains a wealth of information about what impacts Ethiopia’s EFCCC is most concerned about with respect to the different kinds or stages of mineral or petroleum operations. It also indicates level of mitigation that the EFCCC requires. The goal of this guideline is to provide mining and petroleum companies upfront with all the necessary information about the EIA process that they can use in the early planning stage of their project. This helps ensure companies are best positioned to have their project approved.

The MoMP has also taken steps to lessen the environmental impact of artisanal mining by providing a set of guidelines for artisanal miners, local communities surrounding artisanal mining sites and licensing authorities.

This guideline will help artisanal miners become aware of the potential dangers of their activities and help them mine in a more sustainable way. It will also improve the management of the artisanal mining sector by providing the licensing authorities with a set of checks and balances they did not previously have.

Every Environmental Impact Assessment must include an assessment of the health and safety impacts of the project. This includes both the occupational health and safety impacts, and the health and safety impacts on the local communities who might be affected by the project’s activities. The EIA Guideline for Mineral and Petroleum Operation Projects contains helpful information for mining and petroleum companies about the health and safety impacts the Ethiopian government is most concerned about here.

It is also important to recognise that employers in Ethiopia are legally required to take all occupational health and safety precautions and to abide by the health and safety standards set by the relevant authority. For more detail, please see Labour Proclamation No1156/2011.

Under Ethiopian law, polluting the environment is illegal, and the penalties for doing so are clearly spelled out. Ethiopia follows the ‘polluter pays’ principle and requires the person or entity causing the pollution to pay for any clean up.

Please see the Environmental Pollution Control Proclamation (Proc. No. 300/2002) for more detail.