SEA of Policies

Strategic Environmental Assessment at the Policies Level
Recent Progress, Current Status and Future Prospects
Edited by Barry Sadler
Available in English only.
(140 pp.)
A volume prepared by the Regional Environment Centre for Central and Eastern Europe on behalf of the Czech Ministry of Environment as a contribution to the implementation of the UNECE Protocol on Strategic Environmental Assessment and to the discussion at the IAIA Global Conference on SEA (26-29 September, 2005, Prague). It contains additional materials and updated papers from the proceedings of a workshop on SEA at the policy level organised on behalf of the Netherlands Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and Environment (VROM).
This volume comprises a review of SEA systems that apply primarily or partly to policy or legislation. It takes stock of experience at this level in Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Hong Kong SAR, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, United Kingdom and the World Bank. A major aim in bringing this information together is to provide background material that Parties to the SEA Protocol may find helpful in supporting future work on its application at the level of policy or legislation. This publication also has been commissioned by the Czech Ministry to inform ongoing work on SEA of national policies in the Czech Republic and to contribute to the discussion at the IAIA Global Conference on SEA (26-29 September, Prague). In addition, it is hoped that publication will be of wider interest and prove helpful to SEA practitioners and others active in the field, internationally.
About the Work of the Signatories to the Protocol on Strategic Environmental Assessment: Pending the entry into force of the SEA Protocol, the Meeting of the Parties to the Convention on Environmental Impact Assessment in a Transboundary Context (the mother convention of the Protocol on SEA) adopted a work plan that provides for: (a) the analysis of SEA capacity-building needs in Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia; (b) the production of a capacity development manual to support the application and implementation of the Protocol; and (c) institutional and procedural activities in preparation for the first meeting of the Parties to the Convention serving as the Meeting of the Parties to the Protocol. The capacity development manual does not consider in detail the application of the Protocol to policies and legislation; so this volume provides a helpful supplement to the wider work plan of the Convention.

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