SEA in Southern Africa

Abstract

On a continent where the livelihoods of the majority of Africans are closely linked to the health of the natural environment, and where poverty and land degradation has increased in recent decades, there is a critical need for sustainable management of the resource base and the ecosystem services that this provides. Most southern African countries already have environmental assessment and management policies and legislation in place and specific provision for strategic environmental assessment (SEA) exists in a number of them. Despite these trends, however, the opportunities that SEA can offer to facilitate sustainable development are not being realized. In this chapter, the authors describe the emergence of SEA in the post-colonial, democratic context of southern Africa, provide an overview of the recent developments and argue that there is considerable scope for SEA to have a greater impact on sustainable development than it does at present. The metaphor used is that current practice of SEA is but ‘the ear of the hippo’ . . .there is huge potential beneath the surface.