Environment and Policy Institute, East West Center
The idea for tills manual has roots in more than 25 years of work interpreting and transferring scientific and technical information for
use by policy and decisionmakers. I was privileged to take part in the formulation of the U.S. National Environmental Policy Act of 1969
while Chief of the Environmental Policy Division of the Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress. This law called for the
preparation of an environmental impact statement—an action-forcing provision aimed at American government officials. But the concept of