Abstract
Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) is a proactive and collaborative method for environmental management designed to integrate environmental considerations into decision-making; and it is good for Sierra Leone. To understand whether SEA would be useful in the context of Sierra Leone, the authors interviewed 64 out of 78 experts face to face from March to July 2019. In addition, government policies and regulatory documents on environmental management and sustainable development, published articles served as secondary sources of data. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. These Sierra Leonean experts agreed that SEA would be useful for integration and achievement of improved sustainable urban planning strategies. However, the barriers identified to integrating SEA include: not addressing environmental issues during the preparation of policies and programs, insufficient political will, the absence of clear objectives, targets, principles and approaches, overlapping mandates among environmental institutions, and inadequate institutional coordination and non-integrated development framework as barriers to integrating SEA into their work. The study shows that SEA has the potential to have a positive impact on environmental concerns in decision-making, but it would need to be supported by stronger political will, legal frameworks, and improved technical guidance from the policy perspective. Moreover, we propose a conceptual framework for the inclusion of SEA into the urban planning process in Sierra Leone.
Highlights
In the development planning process, it is increasingly recognized that it is important to identify potential environmental impacts, indicate significant environmental impacts, and try to develop mitigation measures through the generation of alternatives to proposed development
Regarding the advantages of incorporation on Strategic environmental assessment (SEA) into urban planning processes in Sierra Leone, a comparable number of government authorities (29%), professional staff in Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) unit/private consultancy (30%), academic personnel (20%), and environmental experts (21%) strongly agreed that increased public awareness and public participation was one advantage of SEA’s incorporation in the urban planning process in Sierra Leone
Other anticipated advantages, according to government authorities (27%), professional staff in EIA unit/private consultancy (30%), academic personnel (22%), and environmental experts (21%) are attainment of sustainable development; enhanced environmental consideration in decision making (government authorities (28%), professional staff in EIA
Summary
In the development planning process, it is increasingly recognized that it is important to identify potential environmental impacts, indicate significant environmental impacts, and try to develop mitigation measures through the generation of alternatives to proposed development. Recognizing the wide range of potential impacts on the environment, a number of planning and assessment procedures have been developed as tools to help achieve more sustainable planning and development. Environmental assessment (EA) is a process for highlighting the possible effects of new development on the environment so that they can be taken into consideration in the decision-making process. In this way, EA is intended to help ensure that development proposals are more sustainable and environmentally sound. Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), the first generation of EA, is a systematic process that examines, in advance, the environmental consequences of a proposed development action [1]. Researchers have realized that there is a need for EA
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