jamaicasocialinvestmentfund.docVIP

JAMAICA SOCIAL INVESTMENT FUND ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT FRAMEWORK INTRODUCTION The Jamaica Social Investment Fund (JSIF) finances and implements a variety of small-scale community level projects in rural, peri-urban and urban areas. These projects are expected to have generally positive environmental impacts, albeit some could result in minor adverse environmental impacts that would be mostly local and reversible. Occasionally, there may be a need for involuntary land acquisition under eminent domain to meet the requirements of land for a project. JSIF has developed this Environmental Management Framework (EMF) to manage these potential adverse impacts and also to ensure compliance with the requirements of Jamaican environmental laws and regulations and the relevant policies of its major funding agencies like Caribbean Development Bank, European Union, Inter-American Development Bank, World Bank and other development partners. One of the guiding operational principles (principle # 9) of JSIF is that projects funded by JSIF must conform to the Government of Jamaica’s environmental regulations and have minimum impacts on the natural and cultural environment. Thus the EMF becomes an integral part of JSIF’s Operations Manual (OM) and is applicable to all investments financed by JSIF, regardless of its funding source or implementing agency. The main objectives of this EMF are to: establish procedures for screening all proposed projects for their potential adverse environmental impacts and land requirements/acquisition; specify measures for managing, mitigating and monitoring environmental impacts during project implementation and operation; and outline the training and capacity-building arrangements needed to successfully implement the provisions of the EMF. PROJECTS FINANCED BY JSIF Types of Projects Eligible for JSIF Financing JSIF finances only small-scale projects which are aimed to improve the livelihood of small communities, their access to ba