THE POTENTIAL FOR ADOPTING STRATEGIC ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT (SEA) IN EGYPT

Abstract

The achievement of sustainable development demands a close integration betweenenvironment and development. The evidence is that in developing countries (Egypt, as anexample) the gap between the need for environmental protection and development processes iswidening rather than closing. Intensive research programmes are needed, for instance in thefield of sustainable development and environmental management, to narrow that gap. Despitethe fact that Egypt has achieved considerable progress in environmental management, inparticular in establishing an EIA system as a management tool for achieving acceptable forms ofenvironmentally sound development and sustainability; it is argued that there are various EIAconstraints. It is also noted that the natural environment in Egypt has continued to be heavilydegraded. Therefore, this paper advocates the adoption of strategic environmental assessmentas a means of achieving sustainable development in planning practice. SEA is considered to bethe machinery for achieving close integration between the environment and developmentprocesses in Egypt. This paper mainly aims at investigating the Egyptian environmental contextto reveal the potential for SEA to be introduced in environmental management to achieve moresustainable development.