Environmental Impact Assessment (Forestry) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2000

Interpretation

2.—(1) In these Regulations, unless the context otherwise requires—

“afforestation” means initial afforestation (which has the same meaning as in paragraph 1(d) of Annex II to the Directive);

“deforestation” means deforestation for the purposes of conversion to another type of land use (which terms have the same meaning as in paragraph 1(d) of Annex II to the Directive);

“the Department” means the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development;

“development” means development within the meaning of Article 11 of the Planning (Northern Ireland) Order 1991(1);

“the Directive” means Council Directive 85/337/EEC(c) on the assessment of the effects of certain public and private projects on the environment as amended by Council Directive 97/11/EC(d);

“EEA State” means a State which is a Contracting Party to the Agreement on the European Economic Area signed at Oporto on 2nd May 1992 as adjusted by the Protocol signed in Brussels on 17th March 1993;

“environmental information” means information in the environmental statement and any other information provided in accordance with these Regulations in relation to an application for consent or any reconsideration under regulation 17 relating to the likely environmental effects of the project which is the subject of the application or, as the case may be, reconsideration or review;

“environmental statement” means a statement—

(a)

that includes such of the information referred to in Part I of Schedule 1 as is reasonably required to assess the environmental effects of the project and which the applicant can, having regard in particular to current knowledge and methods of assessment, reasonably be required to compile, but

(b)

that includes at least the information referred to in Part II of Schedule 1;

“forest quarry works” means operations on land used or to be used for the purposes of forestry, or on land held or occupied with that land, to obtain the materials required for forest road works;

“forest road works” means the formation, alteration or maintenance of private ways on land used or to be used for the purposes of forestry;

“project” means the execution of construction works or of other installations or schemes or other intervention in the natural surroundings or landscape including those involving the extraction of mineral resources;

“proposer” means the person who proposes to carry out a project;

“relevant project” shall be construed in accordance with regulation 3.

(2) In these Regulations, any reference to an enforcement notice shall be construed as including, as the context requires, a reference to a notice of variation under regulation 19(6)(a) or to an enforcement notice so varied.

(3) Any reference in these Regulations (other than regulation 21) to consent is a reference to the consent of the Department required by regulation 4, and—

(a) (where the context permits) includes consent by the Department on a reconsideration under regulation 17; and

(b) in regulations 4 and 19 to 22 includes (in accordance with regulation 24) consent granted under the Environmental Assessment (Forestry) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1998(2).

(4) The Interpretation Act (Northern Ireland) 1954(3) shall apply to these Regulations as it applies to an Act of the Northern Ireland Assembly.

(1)

S.I. 1991/1220 (N.I. 11)

(2)

S.R. 1998 No. 437

(3)

1953 c. 33 (N.I.)