The Avoid, Reduce, Compensate (ERC) sequence applied in New Caledonia

Mission de renforcement ERC

Development of the roadmap to strengthen the implementation of this sequence

This mission was part of the RESCCUE project financed by the French Development Agency and was entrusted to us by the Communauté du Pacifique (SPC). It was conducted in 2017. Following a thorough, rigorous and shared diagnosis, its goal was to define a roadmap to strengthen Avoid, Reduce, Compensate(ERC) practices in environmental assessment processes (EA) for all types of New Caledonian projects in order to minimise net biodiversity loss in New Caledonia.

The objective was to first characterise and appraise existing processes and practices in New Caledonia for the environmental assessment of projects as well as the mastery and the application of the ERC sequence. Then, the mission aimed to identify issues relating to the scale of the country and of each of the three provinces having a high level of development and environmentalautonomy, and finally to establish and clarify contextualized solutions for enhanced practices in the matter.

Using a variety of consultation and coordination tools and techniques, we were able to federate all of the categories and the vast majority of environmental actors concerned in all of New Caledonia, to contribute to this innovative and exciting project in this exceptional region.