The Pacific region faces complex environmental challenges, including those related to climate change, land use change, management of waste, and the conservation of biodiversity. To address these challenges, Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) is a critical tool that can support the evaluation of the potential environmental impacts of proposed policies, plans, and programs. The SEA process typically involves the systematic identification and assessment of the environmental impacts of proposed actions, and the integration of these findings into decision-making processes. Despite its importance, the implementation of SEA in the Pacific region faces significant challenges, including limited institutional capacity, a lack of political commitment, and inadequate technical expertise.
The Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environmental Programme (SPREP) has been actively promoting the adoption and mainstreaming of Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) to support robust environmental policy and planning development in the Pacific region. To this end, SPREP developed comprehensive SEA guidelines in 2020, aimed at providing a framework for the successful implementation of SEA, and to assist practitioners and decision-makers in developing and executing effective SEA processes. These guidelines have facilitated training and capacity building on SEA.

The objective of this webinar is to build on the SPREP SEA guidelines by facilitating an in-depth discussion on SEA, with a particular emphasis on the unique challenges and opportunities encountered in the Pacific region. The webinar will provide an in-depth overview of the principles and practices of SEA, including the various stages of the process, such as the identification of pertinent environmental issues, the evaluation of impacts, and the integration of findings into decision-making procedures.

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