On 21 November 2022, Ministerial Diploma No. 118/2022 was officially published by the National Press of Mozambique, approving the Directive on Independent Specialist Reviewers of Environmental Impact Studies for Category A+ Activities. This is a legal instrument that complements the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) process and establishes the procedures related to the registration and intervention of Independent Specialist Reviewers (ISR) in the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) process for Category A+ Activities or Projects, already regulated by Decree No. 54/2015 of 31 December.

With this legal instrument, Mozambique now has the capacity to classify as A+ all public or private activities or projects which, due to their complexity, location, and/or the irreversibility and magnitude of their environmental and social impacts, require an independent environmental and social assessment carried out by external entities known as Independent Specialist Reviewers (ISR), with proven experience and duly registered with the Environmental Impact Assessment Authority in Mozambique.

This initiative was led by the National Directorate for the Environment (DINAB) of the Ministry of Land and Environment (MTA), with the support of the COMBO+ Programme, an international initiative led by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), financed by the French Development Agency (AFD) and the French Global Environment Facility (FFEM), with the Foundation for the Conservation of Biodiversity (BIOFUND) as a partner entity, and funded by the World Bank/MozBio 2 Project and UNDP/BIOSFAC Project.

See Ministerial Diploma No. 118/2022 here.