Narrow Results

This paper highlights perhaps one of the most fundamental issues constraining strategic environmental assessment (SEA) practice — its definition. Current reviews fail to explain why certain assessments are referred to as strategic while others are not. Furthermore, there appears to be very little attention given to the basic characteristics of strategy in the environmental assessment of proposed or existing policies, plans and programmes. This paper attempts to identify the characteristics of SEA that make it strategic and therefore different from other forms of impact assessment. A review of selected case studies is undertaken with the purpose of identifying those assessments that actually conform to the characteristics of a "strategic assessment". It is argued here that if SEA methodology and practice is to advance, then a common understanding of its definition and characteristics must first be achieved.

The concept of strategic environmental assessment (SEA) has developed rapidly in recent years and has been extensively promoted by environmental assessment (EA) practitioners. SEA has been the focus of considerable dialogue, increasing regulatory attention and emerging evidence of application. This paper seeks to advance the potential for the adoption of SEA in policy making by focusing attention on policy making processes themselves, and on the need for SEA procedures to be moulded to these existing policy making activities. We argue that widespread adoption of SEA concepts is unlikely unless EA practitioners become much more cognisant of the policy making process. Too much of the literature on SEA to date is insular — EA practitioners communicating amongst themselves. Dialogue on SEA development must be between EA proponents and policy makers/theorists if SEA of policy is to fulfil its promise. In order to make SEA of policies effective, SEA must influence the decisions that are intrinsic in policy making. We provide a simplified policy making model and demonstrate that it is necessary, and possible, for SEA to provide environmental input throughout the stages of policy formulation and decision making. The policy making context must drive the form and process of the SEA. In effect, this is an extension of Brown & Hill's (1995) notion of decision scoping, originally developed to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of project-based EIA, to the environmental assessment of policies.

Assessing the potential impact of development projects in the Sudan dates back to the study of the Equatorial Nile Project conducted in the last century during the Anglo-Egyptian Condominium. Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) studies commenced in the early eighties of the last century with the establishment of the Institute of Environmental Studies in the University of Khartoum. The practice gathered momentum with the recent activities in the oil and roads sectors. Although the practice of (EIA) has only recently been legalized by the passing of the Environment Protection Act of 2001, the performance of EIA is often poor due to flaws in legislative, administrative, institutional and procedural frameworks. Effective implementation of the EIA process in the Sudan requires the institutionalization of the process within the legislative, administrative, political and education system in the country. Special emphasis is needed for the federal system of governance. Other issues include accreditation, sectoral regulations, establishing of a National Centre of EIA for advising the government and for training of human capacities. The paper calls for more involvement of stakeholders via effective popular participation in all steps of EIA. The expected influx of foreign investors following the Comprehensive Peace Accord of 2005 and the concentration of oil reserves in the ecologically rich and sensitive regions, call for an urgent improvement in the legislative, institutional and procedural aspects of the process.

A substantial portion of private sector investments in emerging market economies internationally is routed through the use of Financial Intermediaries (FIs). FIs act as important gateways for channeling the resources from large Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs), to micro, small and medium-sized (SME) projects and enterprises whose comparatively limited business portfolios would otherwise make them ineligible for funding. During a MDB's scoping, FI clients are classified into a unique Category FI, whereby the onus for Environmental Assessment (EA) is transferred from the MDB to the FI. Although EA guidelines exist, FI institutions often fail to adequately incorporate them in their sub-project review. This increases the potential for environmentally and socially harmful development decisions being made by the FI with financial resources originating from MDBs. This paper identifies the factors limiting the successful incorporation of EA in FI subproject financing, in an attempt to develop tools to assist MDB's and their FIs to attain compliance with local, national and international EA laws and regulations.

Increasing resource efficiency can potentially deliver important economic and environmental benefits. Many of these benefits are regularly foregone because the financial sector's capacity to adequately take the opportunities and risks arising from resource utilization and related climate change aspects into account has so far remained relatively undeveloped. Focusing on the case of Germany, a number of barriers to the inclusion of resource efficiency and climate change aspects into financial services' considerations are presented. Corresponding measures for improving the capacity of the financial sector to better integrate resource efficiency considerations and climate change related risks into its operating procedures are introduced. The measures encompass the areas of risk controlling, company reporting, institutional reporting requirements, as well as additional supporting measures.

In 2004, the US Forest Service launched the Spatial Analysis Project (SAP) to determine whether lands enrolled in the Forest Stewardship Program meet state stewardship objectives. Within each state, SAP used an aggregate analysis to categorise all land available for the FSP as — low, medium, or high stewardship potential. We characterized differences in land classified by the SAP in the study area, and determined if states have been effectively enrolling lands in the high category. Results indicate that while states are enrolling high stewardship potential lands (p < 0.0001), prioritising among forest lands is difficult because nearly all of it is classified as high or medium stewardship potential. We suggest prioritising forested areas using ranking criteria that are more closely associated with state forestry priorities, a strategy that could be adapted to increase the impact of limited public forest stewardship resources outside of the region as well.

Environmental cost–benefit analysis is increasingly used to support the formulation of European air quality policies. In these analyses, typically around three-quarters of the societal benefits of cleaner air are related to monetised increases in statistical life expectancy. However, the literature presents widely diverging estimates for the value of a statistical life year (a ‘VOLY’). This paper presents a review of studies aimed at establishing a VOLY as used in European air quality policies and it examines the factors that cause the variations in VOLY estimates. We discuss the implications of our findings for European air quality policies and also present a novel approach to analyse the VOLY. We have labelled our approach the ‘maximum societal revenue VOLY’ (MSR-VOLY), and postulate that this approach may be particularly useful in the context of natural capital accounting.

Policy monitoring and evaluation are important elements of the policy cycle, this help to initiate policy-makers to assess the proper implementation and adjust it as appropriate. This paper aims to evaluate the existing policy, strategies, and institutional arrangement on the development of urban green infrastructure in the three study areas; namely Hawassa, Wolayita Sodo, and Bodity town. Analyzing policy documents, key informant interview, and questionnaire survey were used to collect the required data. Descriptive statistics and policy analysis were also used to analyze the collected data from different sources. The study revealed that different strategies and standards were developed by the federal government, but it is not practically exercised at the regional and local level. The majority of government officials and experts agreed that existing policies and strategies related to UGI is not properly implemented. On the other hand, lack of policy and strategies are the major limitation in the development and management of UGI. Almost majority of the respondents confirmed that weak institutional arrangement has contributed to the poor implementation of UGI development. Lack of attention and awareness, the weak institutional arrangement is the main responsible factors for the absence of proper policy and poor implementation of strategies concerning UGI. Thus, actions needed for all the development of proper policies and strategies to improve UGI development.

This chapter examined historical occurrence of natural disasters, policy frameworks related to disasters, implementation arrangements and challenges, national and household resources to natural disasters in Malawi. It is found that Malawi has an updated national disaster risk reduction (DRR) policy that is coordinated by the Department of Disaster Risk management and Affairs within the Office of President and Cabinet. The policy is linked to various related sectoral policies and to national growth and development strategy. There are various committees established at various levels that deliberate on issues related to disaster risk reduction and management. At national level, priority areas have been identified. In addition, the chapter concluded that household strategies such as crop diversification, irrigation farming and income generating activities have positive and significant contribution on reducing disaster risk to household food production and let alone welfare.

This dissertation takes the flexible employment policy and implementation effect in Beijing as the research subject, and analyzes the current status and problems of the implementation of flexible employment policy. Analysis of the unemployment and reemployment condition of personnel of flexible employment. Flexible employment is an important policy for effectively promoting the employment in the period of economic and social transition of China, and the development of flexible employment relies on the guarantee of necessary systems and policies.

The 1906 Convention and the 1944 Treaty establish the distribution of surface water of the Rio Grande (RG), Colorado, and Tijuana Rivers between the United States and Mexico. Neither of these treaties addresses groundwater management. Only Minute 242 to the 1944 Treaty, regulates salinity for groundwater. Specifically, Minute 242.5 establishes that there is a lack of “conclusion by the Governments of the United States and Mexico for a comprehensive agreement on groundwater in the border areas.” The lack of regulation has contributed to overdraft and degradation of the water quality in several aquifers along the US–Mexico border. Recommendations for an institutional and legal framework under an umbrella agreement, addressing water bank as allocation tool, attempt to fill the legal vacuum of international and interstate groundwater management in the US–Mexico border region. In addition, these recommendations can be adapted to other transboundary basins around the world.