Back and Next - Back and NextDakar regional workshop sets out proposals for SEA
Sunday, February 1, 2009
The just concluded regional workshop on Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA), convened in Dakar, Senegal, from 26-28 January 2009, has paved the way forward for the implementation of a new planning tool in coastal African states.
Organized by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), in conjunction with the Netherlands Commission on Environmental Impact Assessment (CMER) and the Regional Programme for Marine and Coastal Conservation (PRCM), the three-day training session brought together participants from The Gambia, Senegal, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Cape Verde and Mauritania, with the aim of promoting new partnerships, ideas and resolve for assessing potential impacts on the hydrocarbon, fisheries and tourism sectors.
Considering the fact that coastal African states are expected to face serious risks as a result of oil and gas exploitation, the workshop was an opportunity for representatives from governments, civil societies, international organisations and the media not only to explore ways and means to shift the region away from the highly dangerous course (i.e. destruction of the existing ecosystem...), but also to devise environmental solutions to the aggressive search for more fossil fuels.
Speaking to the Daily Observer, Momodou B. Sarr, executive director of the National Environment Agency (NEA), recalled that in the past the focus was on Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) mainly designed for projects. But, he added, policies, plans and programmes were never assessed. "So now this new tool, which is called Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA), is helping to assess programmes, plans and policies," he indicated.
According to him, this new tool provides a wide range of possibilities of taking into account the environmental dimension in any plan or policy. "I think it will benefit our country very much, as we've seen that many policies face, in their implementation process, a lot of conflicts and environmental impacts which are negative," he said. Asked whether the absence of a legal framework for SEA will constitute a major obstacle, the NEA boss noted that the legal framework should really prepare to compel those who develop policies.
The outcome of the training session also included an urgent call for governments and other stakeholders to make SEA central to their core operations.
Organized by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), in conjunction with the Netherlands Commission on Environmental Impact Assessment (CMER) and the Regional Programme for Marine and Coastal Conservation (PRCM), the three-day training session brought together participants from The Gambia, Senegal, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Cape Verde and Mauritania, with the aim of promoting new partnerships, ideas and resolve for assessing potential impacts on the hydrocarbon, fisheries and tourism sectors.
Considering the fact that coastal African states are expected to face serious risks as a result of oil and gas exploitation, the workshop was an opportunity for representatives from governments, civil societies, international organisations and the media not only to explore ways and means to shift the region away from the highly dangerous course (i.e. destruction of the existing ecosystem...), but also to devise environmental solutions to the aggressive search for more fossil fuels.
Speaking to the Daily Observer, Momodou B. Sarr, executive director of the National Environment Agency (NEA), recalled that in the past the focus was on Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) mainly designed for projects. But, he added, policies, plans and programmes were never assessed. "So now this new tool, which is called Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA), is helping to assess programmes, plans and policies," he indicated.
According to him, this new tool provides a wide range of possibilities of taking into account the environmental dimension in any plan or policy. "I think it will benefit our country very much, as we've seen that many policies face, in their implementation process, a lot of conflicts and environmental impacts which are negative," he said. Asked whether the absence of a legal framework for SEA will constitute a major obstacle, the NEA boss noted that the legal framework should really prepare to compel those who develop policies.
The outcome of the training session also included an urgent call for governments and other stakeholders to make SEA central to their core operations.
Author: by Abdoulie John
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