Journal of Environmental Assessment Policy and Management

Strategic environmental assessment (SEA) has been identified as an important tool for helping to ensure that development is planned and implemented for the benefit of biodiversity by the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Ramsar Convention and the Convention for Migratory Species. SEA is seen as a way to overcome many limitations of project-level environmental impact assessment by allowing consideration of biodiversity at higher tiers of decision-making and planning.

This paper identifies some important principles that should be taken into account to ensure that biodiversity considerations are appropriately addressed in SEA, so that the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity are pursued as fundamental objectives of strategic decision-making. The paper also sets out key considerations to take into account at different stages in the SEA process. The principles explored in this paper should be applicable in any country where SEA is practiced, even though legislation, methodologies and procedures vary widely.

The Cape Floristic Region (CFR) and Succulent Karoo are global biodiversity hotspots. The CFR is one of six plant kingdoms worldwide. The CFR and most of the Succulent Karoo lie within South Africa. South Africa has ratified the Biodiversity Convention, and must accordingly safeguard its biodiversity. Environmental assessment (EA) can help to achieve this end. Environmental legislation in South Africa requires EA for activities at project, not strategic level. However, strategic environmental assessment has been mandatory since 2000 for preparing municipal spatial development frameworks (SDFs). By setting targets for ecosystem conservation and providing thresholds of significance, systematic conservation planning can make a significant contribution to the sound preparation of SDFs, and effective EA at planning and project levels. In South Africa, the integration of systematic conservation planning with spatial planning and EA is recent. Based on examples, the main challenges for the future are identified.

In urbanising regions, urban sprawl and infrastructure cause profound alterations of natural habitats. Initial decisions on urban expansion and major infrastructure investments are often made on a strategic level where the long-term development of a region is determined. For these types of decisions a strategic environmental assessment can be prepared. However, the lack of an adequate conceptual and methodological framework can pose a major problem for the prediction of impacts, not least concerning biodiversity. This paper will highlight the need for effective methods for biodiversity analysis at landscape and regional levels, with reference to the long-term urban development of the Stockholm and Mälaren regions. Problems of habitat loss, fragmentation and other impacts related to large-scale urbanisation and infrastructure developments will be addressed. GIS-based methods focusing on predictive ecological modelling will be discussed in a scenario context. The implementation of such methodologies in the strategic environmental assessment process would allow a better integration of biodiversity in planning and decision-making, further promoting a sustainable planning system.

Biodiversity conservation has been promoted in Nepal (within and outside protected areas) over the last three decades through relevant policies and legislations. The government has encouraged the participation of people through community user groups in managing the biodiversity and sharing the benefits. About 50 percent of the total revenue generated in protected areas is provided annually to such groups for resource management and community development activities. Forests are also managed by involving community users. Recently, attempts were made to manage biodiversity through an environmental impact assessment (EIA) process. The Nepal Biodiversity Strategy (2002) and Water Resources Strategy (2002), under implementation, recognise the role of EIA in mainstream biodiversity conservation in development programmes. However, biodiversity is under immense pressure due to infrastructure, water resources and socioeconomic development programmes and projects. His Majesty's Government of Nepal has made a policy commitment in its Tenth Plan (2002–2007) to carry out strategic environmental assessment (SEA) of development plans and programmes. Pursuant to this plan, an SEA has been carried out for the 25-year Nepal Water Plan. This plan is designed to, inter alia, promote the development of hydropower, irrigation, water-induced disaster management and drinking water programmes. This paper outlines the general understanding and knowledge of SEA in Nepal and examines how the SEA of the Nepal Water Plan addresses biodiversity aspects. It also outlines problems faced, and challenges and opportunities for strengthening SEA and its use to conserve biodiversity in Nepal.

This paper provides an overview of the way biodiversity issues are dealt with in strategic environmental assessment (SEA) for spatial plans in the Netherlands. Spatial plans are selected as subject of study because 50 percent of all SEA studies executed in the Netherlands are carried out for spatial plans. Secondly, these plans provide an overarching framework for multiple interventions with potential impacts on biodiversity. It is, therefore, important to pay particular attention to biodiversity at the strategic level of a spatial plan. The evaluation is based on five spatial plans that have been subject to SEA, two national plans, two provincial plans and one local plan. Based on these assessments a number of conclusions are presented on the assessment of biodiversity in SEA for spatial plans in the Netherlands. The evaluation of case studies on which this paper is based was undertaken to produce a submission to the Convention on Biological Diversity for the drafting of international guidelines on biodiversity in SEA.

Biological diversity (biodiversity) is an essential issue in conservation and environmental impact assessment (EIA). Though Korea is relatively small, the country harbours over 29,800 species, making biodiversity and ecosystem conservation a central issue when an EIA is undertaken during development site selection. Indeed, an unfavourable biodiversity evaluation can halt a proposed or in-progress development, creating a societal conflict between conservationists and developers. To solve this, the Strategic Environment Assessment (SEA) legislation was created in Korea to provide a systematic instrument for improving decision-making through early-stage environmental assessment. The SEA legislation was recently passed by the President's cabinet and is poised for implementation during 2005. Adoption of the SEA will facilitate better assessments of biodiversity during the early stages of the developmental process, preventing late-stage interruptions such as those seen in the Korean High-speed Railway Project (KHRP), which was recently halted due to poor biodiversity conservation around the development site. The original EIA of the KHRP did not appropriately address the biodiversity issues because most of the developmental plan had been set in place prior to evaluation of biodiversity in the affected areas. The KHRP caused leakage of mountain groundwater such that high elevation wetlands marked as ecosystem conservation areas by the Ministry of Environment became dry and lost their endemic amphibian species. Upon learning this, several national NGOs filed court cases on behalf of the Korean clawed salamander (Onachodaytylus fisheri), halting the project for some time. Thus, the lack of biodiversity consideration at the earliest stages of the KHRP created a social conflict. This paper examines how the implementation of an SEA during the KHRP would have minimised the social conflicts between biodiversity conservation and developmental processes.

The India Ecodevelopment Project supported from Global Environmental Facility funds has been a major conservation initiative of the Government of India that was initiated in 1997 in seven protected areas (PAs) in the country. This project aimed to strengthen biodiversity conservation by establishing critical links between conservation and community well-being. The objective of environmental review of the project in the seven PA sites was to review the success of enabling strategies and interventions under the project in effectively addressing biodiversity conservation and optimising benefits to local communities through measurable improvements.

Strategic environmental assessment, along with other indicators of success that have been adopted worldwide for evaluating integrated conservation and development projects, was used for the environmental review of the project. The prioritisation of investments in activities under the project was found to be in accordance with the ecological profile and in conformity with the objectives of conservation in each PA. Although most of the activities identified under the project are beneficial and provide evidence of their positive impacts on biodiversity conservation, the project at large had pitfalls and success in varying proportions in different sites. The India Ecodevelopment Project has been particularly limited in scope to address biodiversity threats from unplanned development and incompatible landuse practices around PAs, which pose far more significant threats to conservation.