This paper reports on a study of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on briefings under the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Act. The study covered 119 EIA procedures for which the deadline for public comments was set between March 2020 and June 14, 2021. As a result, 37 were either not held or were cancelled. Of those that did hold briefings, at least 14 did not inform the public of their policies on infection control. Even under these circumstances, the Ministry of the Environment (MOE) have not released their opinions on how the briefing should be held, and have admitted that no briefing has been held even a year after the pandemic, citing unforeseen circumstances. MOE is also reluctant to hold briefings using online conference systems, saying that they do not fit in with EIA.
In addition, this paper presents the guidelines for EIA briefings under COVID-19 published by Thailand and Kenya, Indonesia, and the author's experiments in organizing methodological briefings using online conference systems and 3DVR technology. Communication in EIA should not be set back due to COVID-19.
