Introduction to the SEA Protocol

	Millennium Development Goal  7: Ensure environmental sustainability Target 1: Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programmes and reverse the loss of environmental resources.	Rio Declaration on Environment and Development (1992)  Principle 4: In order to achieve sustainable development, environmental protection shall constitute an integral part of the development process and cannot be considered in isolation from it.

The SEA Protocol augments the Espoo Convention by ensuring that individual Parties integrate environmental assessment into their plans and programmes at the earliest stages – so helping to lay the groundwork for sustainable development. The Protocol also provides for extensive public participation in the governmental decision-making process. The Protocol entered into force on 11 July 2010.
Watch a short introductory video on the Protocol on Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA). The video presents the SEA process set out in the Protocol, together with its benefits and potential as a tool for greening economies.
The Kyiv (SEA) Protocol, now in force (see which countries are Party to the Protocol; see press release on entry into force), requires its Parties to evaluate the environmental consequences of their official draft plans and programmes. Read more