Sustainable Development Strategy and Strategic
Environmental Assessment (SEA):
Enabling Activities and Capacity Building in the
Islamic Republic of Iran
Following the completion in 2002 of a joint project between the Department of Environment (DoE) and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) that established environmental impact assessment (EIA) guidelines and procedures for Iran (Environmental Impacts Assessment Enabling Activities and Capacity Building, IRA/97/017), both parties agreed in consultation with other national stakeholders to devise a similar framework to systematically employ Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) as a means to appraise the environmental consequences of policies, plans and programmes (PPPs) with the understanding that any such system should take into consideration the interactions between environmental, social and economic issues. The main objective was to contribute to the incorporation of environmental concerns into policies, plans and programmes (PPPs) for the benefit of the poor. As such, the SEA is considered as a comprehensive approach to environmentally sustainable development integrated in national development planning and linked to poverty reduction.
Accordingly, the Project was signed in January7, 2004 between DoE and UNDP with implementation started in the same month. The project has been estimated to end in June 2005.
What Does SEA Do?
SEA is a strategic decision support framework to integrate issues and assess impacts on the environment and stainable development of visions, intentions or strategic proposals with the purpose of improving the quality of decisions.
In other words, SEA is a decision-support tool that promotes a systematic approach for mainstreaming environmental, social and economic considerations (the triple bottom lines of sustainable development) into public decisions and undertakings. In fact SEA:
v Is an instrument to assist and facilitate strategic decision making;
v Is a proactive and logic process;
v Acts at strategic levels when opinions are still open;
v Provides for a participatory and timely approach that acts at strategic level; and
v Must be flexible, diversified and tailor-made to decision processes.
Aims and Objectives of SEA
SEA aims to achieve environmental protection and sustainable development by:
a. Consideration of environmental effects of proposed strategic Actions,
b. Identification of the best practicable environmental option; and
c. Early warning on cumulative effects and large-scale changes.
It aims to strengthen and streamline project EIAs by:
v Prior identification of of scope potential impacts information needs;
v Clearance of strategic issues and concurrence related to justification of proposals ;
v Reducing the time and effort necessary to conduct individual reviews.
It aims to integrate the environment into sector-specific decision-making by:
· Promoting environmentally sound and sustainable proposals; and
· Changing the way decisions are made.
Immediate Objective of this Project:
Main objectives of the current project are:
ü Building sound human and institutional capacity for SEA;
ü Enhancing information gathering and dissemination capacity;
ü Working out a regulatory process to enforce SEAs;
ü Enhancing national technical capacity to carry out SEAs.
Legal and Institutional Base for EIA:
Article 50 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran States: “It shall be considered a public duty in the Islamic Republic to protect the natural environment in which the present as well as future generations shall have a developing social life. Therefore, economic activities or otherwise which cause pollution or an irreversible damage to environment shall be prohibited”.
EIA Bureau was established in 1974 simultaneous with restructuring of DoE. But it took two decades for understanding its importance and concepts by the authorities of the Government and decision makers to set forth regulations in this regard.
Clause 82 of the Law of the Second Five-year Development Plan (1995-1999) puts obligation on all major development projects to conduct EIAs parallel with the feasibility studies. Likewise, the Clause 105 of the Law of the Third Five-year Development Plan (2000-2004) calls for assessing the environmental consequences of
large scale production and/or service plans and programmes and they are required to prepare environmental assessment reports at the stage of site selection, in compliance with the rules and regulations to be set forth by the Supreme Environmental Council.
As approved by Supreme Environmental Council, major development projects are obliged to prepare EIA reports at the very stage of planning before any physical activities are commenced. These development projects include petrochemical plants, refineries, power plants, steel mills, large dams and irrigation networks, industrial estates, airports, highways, railroads, large industrial slaughterhouses, oil and gas pipelines, reforestation plans, municipal solid waste landfill, composting plants, agro-industrial complexes, tourism and ecotourism plans, tailing dams, etc
Legal Bases for SEA:
In Iran, carrying out of EIAs is based on a sound legal basis as it has a legal framework laid down by the decrees and decisions of the Supreme Environmental Council. Although different in scope and approach, the same legal background may be appropriately used to devise and enforce an SEA system. As strategic as SEA is, it may also be seen in an international legal context by being linked to the multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) and country's commitments towards the internationally accepted Millennium Declaration agreed by all UN member states in 2000 and the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation of 2002.
Project Implementation Settings:
National Execution
In order to ensure national ownership and sustainability of project outputs, this project is implemented through the UNDP National Execution modality for project implementation. As such, the project is supervised by a National Project Director assisted by a Steering Committee of national authorities, stakeholders and UNDP. A full time National Project Manager is taking care of day-to-day implementation out of the project office located within the headquarters of DoE. It is planned that a data and information centre be established within the project office ensuring proper data gathering and dissemination. A core group of some 20 professionals representing various sectors and assisted by a small team of facilitators, will carry out substantive project activities and creates outputs. An international consultant will provide technical assistance and advice to the Core Group.
Work Plan Preparation and
Updating Arrangements
Three types of work plans should be prepared by the National Project Director in consultation with the Steering Committee. These are a) the Overall Work Plan which is part and parcel of the original project document, b) Annual Work Plans, and c) Quarterly Work Plans. The latter two work plans shall be prepared and updated regularly.
Outputs:
The project is intended to produce the following outputs:
Ø Training for the Core Group on legal and technical aspects of SEA;
Ø Conducting a number of case studies to identify the needs for carrying out SEAs;
Ø Establishment of a data and information archive;
Ø Preparation and submission of the SEA institutional and legal frameworks and enforcement criteria;
Ø Formulation of a set of SEAtechnical guidelines; and Carrying out advocacy and public awareness activities.
Contact for further information:
SEA Project
Office
Environmental Research Center
Pardissan Nature Park
Tehran, I.R. Iran
P.O. Box
14665-159
Tel: +98-21-8264004
Fax: +98-21-8241644
E-mail:
eia@eiairan.org
www.eiairan.org