What is a cumulative environmental impact?
A cumulative environmental impact is the combined effect of past, current and future environmental impacts from various projects and human activity on the natural environment. For instance, a given region may conduct its commercial fishing operations in a way consistent with the regenerative capacity of the fish stocks. Along come additional fishing fleets, higher-performance equipment for locating and catching fish or maybe pollution from local processing plants. Taken separately, these activities could still be consistent with the regenerative capacity of the fish stocks but, together, their cumulative and interactive effects could put these stocks in danger. For further details on this issue, visit the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency Website.
