Capacity Building in Biodiversity and Impact Assessment (CBBIA) is a global project managed by the International Association for Impact Assessment (IAIA) and funded by the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs till 2007. It provides practical, demand-driven support for development of capacity for integrating biodiversity and impact assessment in Southern Africa, Central America and Asia. In Asia IAIA-CBBIA has been implemented by IUCN in partnership with the Wildlife Institute of India (WII). It has set out to share information and experience and support capacity building, through transfer of knowledge, institution-building and networking in five South Asian countries – Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. In all the five countries targeted for capacity building in EIA in South Asia, the situation assessment surveys conducted as part of the CBBIA – IAIA (Asia project) repeatedly highlighted two key challenges: lack of awareness of the value and importance of biodiversity, and, when the value is appreciated, lack of knowledge on how to ensure that biodiversity is mainstreamed in EIA for making good decisions for achieving better outcome of economic development in different sectors for greater benefit to society. This guidance manual is a specific outcome of this perceived need to overcome the capacity constraints for promoting biodiversity inclusive impact assessment as a mainstreaming tool for harmonizing the economic development goals with the conservation of the rich and varied biodiversity wealth of the region. This guidance manual for biodiversity inclusive EIA is targeted both at EIA practitioners and reviewers in all the above five countries identified under the project.