Terms of Reference

The International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector financing arm of the World Bank Group, is currently assessing two pulp mill projects in Uruguay, Orion and CMB, for financing. The projects are located on the Rio Uruguay near the town of Fray Bentos opposite the Argentine province of Entre Rios. In addition, the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), also a member of the World Bank Group, is evaluating whether to provide political risk insurance to the Orion project only.

In order to fulfill the requirements of its Environmental and Social Review Procedures, IFC commissioned a Cumulative Impact Study (CIS) of the construction and operations of the two pulp mills and their respective raw material sourcing. This cumulative impact study drew upon the original environmental and social impact assessment documentation of the two projects as well as stakeholder comments on that documentation, and provided additional assessment of impacts that was deemed necessary for a full understanding of the combined effects of the two projects. IFC released the CIS for 60 day public comment period on December 19, 2005 and followed this release with a series of stakeholder consultations in Uruguay and Argentina in January and February 2006.

On April 11, 2006 the International Finance Corporation (IFC) publicly released the report of independent experts who were commissioned to review all comments provided by stakeholders on the draft Cumulative Impact Study of the two proposed pulp mills on the Rio Uruguay.

Based on this review, the independent experts identified a need for additional information and analysis to accurately determine and substantiate the environmental impacts of the CMB and Orion projects. In addition, the experts recommended a number of technical improvements for consideration that could enhance the environmental performance of both mills.

Therefore, the services of a specialist consultancy are required to gather additional data, perform additional analysis, and recalculate cumulative impacts in a manner consistent with the recommendations of the independent experts. This additional information and analysis will be incorporated into a final revised CIS.

Specific Requirements

Revise the December 2005 draft CIS, including annexes, to include additional information to address all points raised by the expert panel in its April 2006 report (attached) and correct any inaccuracies, based on the latest available information.

The revised CIS report should follow the format of the December 2005 draft CIS to the extent practicable, so that the reader can readily identify clarification, correction, recalculation or expansion of information presented in that draft. Specifically, the order of presentation, including sequence and titles of chapter and annex headings of the December 2005 draft CIS should be retained. However, this formatting requirement should not limit the consultant from improving the presentation of information or expanding the content of any chapter or annex, nor is it in any way intended to constrain the exercise of the consultancy’s professional judgement, analysis and conclusions.

The revised CIS must cross reference the expert panel report issue by issue (i.e., A1 through C12) with specific reference to the page(s) in the revised CIS where each of the expert panel’s recommendations is addressed.

Within 90 days of being selected, submit to IFC a final report in English and in Spanish that is suitable for release to the public. The final report in both English and Spanish versions must be submitted in electronic format as PDF file(s) so that it can readily be posted by IFC on its web site.