Maria Rosário Partidário

Strategic environmental assessment: Key issues emerging from recent practice

Abstract Many governments and environmental assessment (EA) administrators are currently showing great concern regarding the potential environmental consequences of decisions made at policy, planning, and programmatic levels. Strategic environmental assessment (SEA) is evolving as a mechanism that attempts to assess systematically the environmental impacts of decisions made at, what is conventionally called, levels of strategic decisions. Evidence is emerging in different countries on specific SEA approaches including institutional frameworks, assessment and review mechanisms, and results achieved in specific case applications. Experience is as yet too limited to conclude how effective such systems are but is nevertheless instructive on particular issues implicated in the development and implementation of SEA. A comprehensive review of existing SEA practical approaches was undertaken with the purpose of understanding the existing status of SEA and identifying key practical issues raised by practitioners in the countries reviewed. Such practical issues reflect the strengths and weaknesses experienced with the adoption of particular approaches. This article highlights and reflects on some of the most fundamental policy, institutional, and procedural issues that were found in this research.

Exploring the concept of strategic environmental assessment follow-up

This article explores the concept of SEA follow-up, addressing first its complexity at the level of strategic decision-making. To deal with this complexity, a multi-track approach is proposed. This will allow for the use of those methods, moments and information that prove to be useful in a specific case. Some preliminary guidance is given on how to devise an SEA follow-up programme using a stepwise approach. Far from attempting to provide any prescriptive direction about how to carry out SEA follow-up, the article seeks to articulate key concepts and lessons gained from such activities. SEA follow-up is basically about managing the policy and planning implementation processes or, more generally, about managing the implementation of strategic level decisions.

SPARK: Strategic Planning Approach for Resilience Keeping

In a world in growing turbulence, complexity and uncertainty, where crisis is becoming the norm rather than the exception, resilience is increasingly seen as a critical feature that reflects the capacity of a system to absorb disturbance and reorganize without collapsing. Resilient systems are more adaptable to change, are more able to learn and are less vulnerable to disturbance and external shocks (e.g. natural phenomena, economic crises or political shifts). The resilience theories are re-emerging as a field of research and practice with application to socio-ecological systems, fostering new insights in the discussions about sustainable development. The main purpose of this paper is to explore resilience as a concept and as a framework for promoting more sustainable trajectories, highlighting its potentialities and advantages for policy and planning processes. SPARK, or the strategic planning approach for resilience keeping is introduced in the paper as a new sustainability framework, following key underlying concepts and seven key principles that capture the essence of resilience theories. The paper advances a methodological concept proposal for resilience assessment and planning that aims to contribute to linking theory and practice, performing knowledge brokerage and enhancing policy learning.

Sustainability Assessment for Agriculture Scenarios in Europe’s Mountain Areas: Lessons from Six Study Areas

Sustainability assessment (SA) is a holistic and long-range strategic instrument capable of assisting policy-making in electing, and deciding upon, future development priorities. The outcomes of an SA process become more relevant and strengthened when conducted with multi-stakeholder engagement, which provides for multiple dialogues and perspectives. This was the object of research of the SA team in the context of BioScene (Scenarios for Reconciling Biodiversity Conservation with Declining Agriculture Use in Mountain Areas in Europe), a three-year project (2002–2005) funded by the European Union 5th Framework Program, which aimed to investigate the implications of agricultural restructuring and decline for biodiversity conservation in the mountain areas of Europe, using three distinct methodological streams: the ecological, the socio-economic, and the SA approaches. The SA approach drew on the previous two to assess the importance for biodiversity management of different scenarios of agri-environmental change and rural policy in six countries (France, Greece, Norway, Slovakia, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom), develop causal chains, include stakeholder views, and identify potential contributions for, or conflicts with, sustainability. This article tells how SA was used, what sustainability meant in each study area through different objectives of sustainability considered, discusses the methods used in SA, and the benefits arising. The SA was conducted by a team independent of any study area, who developed and oversaw the application of the SA methodology, assisting national teams, and developing a cross-country understanding of the sustainability of proposed scenarios in the different geographical and social contexts, and their implications for policy-making. Finally, it reflects on the persistent challenges of interdisciplinary research, compounded by multi-cultural teams, and concludes on the BioScene’s lessons for the further development and application of SA.

Writing strategic environmental assessment guidance

The main authors of five of the early guidance documents for how to implement the European Union Strategic Environmental Assessment Directive at regional and national level (those of England, Iceland, the Lombardia region of Italy, Portugal and Scotland) discuss the respective documents. They summarise the evolution of the five documents, then discuss what they were trying to achieve and whether they feel they have succeeded, common and diverging aspects of the documents, and unresolved issues.

Linking strategic environmental assessment (SEA) and city development strategy in Vietnam

Strategic environmental assessment (SEA) application to city development strategy (CDS) reveals the strategic nature of both instruments and their potential multiplier effect on enhancing synergies for sustainable development. The adequacy of the two strategic tools for a complementary approach to integration towards sustainable development raises an outstanding opportunity to walk the talk in view of enhancing sustainable development. In Vietnam, SEA and CDS are being considered jointly in the context of urban development projects and public administration reform. The main features of the link between SEA and CDS are described in this paper, after introducing the SEA and CDS concepts.

A STRATEGIC ADVOCACY ROLE IN SEA FOR SUSTAINABILITY

In this paper I advocate SEA as an instrument of change towards more sustainable patterns of behaviour and development, by following strategic thinking and constructive approaches. I recommend that the future research agenda of SEA should contribute to make SEA a matured, full-fleshed instrument with a clear identity, and coherent functions and forms. This may be achieved by exploring how to engage all actors in a fundamental new attitude in understanding and addressing the complexity of strategic processes, enabling dialogues towards mutual understanding, offering flexibility, ensuring a long-term and large scale perspectives when exploring development options.

The History of the Establishment and Management Philosophies of the Portuguese Protected Areas: Combining Written Records and Oral History

The history of the establishment and management philosophies of the mainland Portuguese Protected Areas was reconstructed through the use of written records and oral history interviews. The objectives were to review the main philosophies in the creation and management of these areas, to assess the influence of international PA models, to compare the Portuguese case with other European and international literature concerning PAs and to discuss the value of the oral history in this research. As main results, it was found that the initial management model of “Wilderness (or Yellowstone)” was replaced by the “new paradigm” of PAs when the democracy was re-established. Changes in the management philosophies within this “new paradigm” were also identified, which resulted in the transition of a “Landscape” to a “Nature conservation” model. After the establishment of the Natura 2000 network, the “Biodiversity conservation” model prevailed. It was also found that the initiative for the establishment of most PAs came from the government, although there were few cases of creation due to the action of NGOs and municipalities. Finally, oral history interviews enabled the addition of information to the literature review, but also provided more insight and detail to this history.

Polis—the Portuguese programme on urban environment. A contribution to the discussion on European Urban Policy

In recent years the urban question in the European Union has been a matter of deep focus and intensive debate, contributing to the European Community environmental, spatial and sustainability policies approach, however not entirely reflected in the current version of the 6th European Environmental Action Programme. The POLIS programme, initiated in Portugal at the time of the last Portuguese Presidency of the European Union (January–June 2000), illustrates the Portuguese urban environmental policy approach in that period, in response to contemporary trends and priorities regarding the improvement of urban life and governance. This article describes the POLIS programme, its current status and how it meets current challenges. The expetience acquired so far with the POLIS programme may be useful in the broader context of the discussion of an European urban policy.

Reviewing Strategic Environmental Assessment Practice in the Oil and Gas Sector

The exploitation of oil and gas resources poses several challenges to sustainability. Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) is broadly recognised as an important instrument to promote sustainability-driven decision-making. This paper aims at exploring to what extent current SEA processes for the oil and gas contribute, procedurally and substantively, to more strategic and sustainability-oriented decisions. To this purpose, we developed a framework for reviewing SEA reports, based on the strategic thinking model for SEA. The framework covers focal elements for enhancing SEA practice and it is structured into nine assessment parameters (object of assessment, entry point, interactivity, scope of assessment, strategic reference framework, process, participation, findings/outcomes, proposal for follow-up), and corresponding key questions. The framework was used to review 11 SEA reports related to both offshore and onshore oil and gas developments. The case studies are in different geographical contexts, and reflect examples of the broad range of SEA procedures existing worldwide. Our review provided evidences of those SEA aspects that play a crucial role in order to recognise more targeted and strategic information on which analysis should be based. This can provide substantive insights to improve the quality of SEA reports, as well as to better design more sustainability-oriented outcomes in the oil and gas sector. In particular, additional attention should be paid to stakeholders involvement from early stage of the procedures; identification of key environmental, social and economic factors; analysis of cumulative and synergistic effects in the long-run; fact-based provisions and recommendations for more integrated mitigation and monitoring management strategies for follow up.