توسعه و شیوه های ارزیابی زیست محیطی استراتژیک در استان شاندونگ، چین

Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA), a newly-developed decision-making support tool, has been used in many developed and developing countries for predicting and evaluating potential environmental impact of policies, plans, and programs (PPPs), as well as for providing alternatives to avoid, mitigate, or compensate for these impacts. Unfortunately, due to the complexity and flexibility of SEA, to date there has been no consensus on a system which could be suitable for the contexts of different regions or countries. Different requirements and practices are observed in the different typical stages of SEA. Controversial areas include the appropriate indicators to apply in the early baseline setting stage, suitable methodologies for the impact assessment, and appropriate procedures for the SEA process. Given this, it is important to review and refine the SEA system specific to the context but informed by internationally agreed norms. As an illustration, this study reviews and proposes steps to refine the SEA system in Shandong Province, an economically powerful province of China, aiming to achieve sustainable development. Supported by the Environmental Impact Assessment Law of the People's Republic of China, Shandong Province employed SEA to reform the traditionally economy-oriented decision-making and incorporate consideration of environmental consequences into government deliberation on proposed PPPs. This paper illustrates the developmental process, procedures, and legal support for SEA in Shandong Province. By analyzing five SEA cases carried out by Shandong Province Environment Protection Bureau (SEPB) and Shandong University, problems in the SEA system were identified, and recommendations were made for improving the SEA system not only in Shandong Province but also other similar regions or countries.

Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA), a decision support tool, has been applied in many developed and developing countries to predict and evaluate the potential environmental impact of policies, plans and programs (PPPs) promulgated by central and/or local governments and to provide alternatives to avoid, mitigate or compensate for their impacts (Bao et al., 2004, Liou and Yu, 2004, Thérivel, 2004, Chaker et al., 2006, Liou et al., 2006, João, 2007 and Zhu and Ru, 2008). Due to the lack of a shared set of indicators, methodologies, and procedures of SEA, to date there has been no uniform SEA system suitable for all regions or countries (Liou and Yu, 2004, Donnelly et al., 2007 and Retief, 2007). The lack of congruence is at least in part due to too much complexity and flexibility involved in many countries' SEA requirements. The inevitabilities of context driven differences make it all the more important to review and refine the SEA system based on case studies of SEAs and the context-specific characteristics in each case. As an economically powerful province of China with a large population, Shandong Province has earned its economic growth to some extent at the cost of environmental quality since the 1950s. A series of policies made by central and/or local governments were economy-oriented without taking enough environmental concern into account. These policies sped up the environmental degeneration of Shandong Province. Facing the deterioration of environmental quality, the people and Government of Shandong Province have realized the importance of ecosystem services and other values of the environment and have been paying greater attention to improving environmental quality. Supported by the 2002 Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Law of the People's Republic of China, SEA was introduced to Shandong Province with the following goals: • To achieve a systematic and comprehensive decision-aiding tool to consider potential environmental consequences as part of the decision making process over proposed PPPs; • To provide a high level of environmental protection; and • To achieve coordinated and sustainable development of the socio-economic wellbeing of the residents without excessive degradation to the environment, in Shandong Province. A series of SEA cases were carried out by the Shandong Province Environment Protection Bureau (SEPB) and Shandong University based on the indicators, methodologies, and procedure of SEAs practiced by regions and countries with the most developed SEAs. Despite some problems in the implementation stage of the SEA cases in Shandong Province, these cases contributed a lot to the following: • at least in part inform and promote the transition of decision-making mechanism from traditionally economy-oriented, characterized by the development of pollution and resources intensive industries, to environmentally-friendly, • protection and improvement the environment of Shandong Province and to the further implementation of SEA in Shandong Province, • provision for practical experience for the carrying out of SEA in other provinces of China. Specific issues with regard the aforementioned problems in the implementation of the SEA cases involved the identification of the scope, indicators, methodologies and procedure of SEA, and lack of enough public participation and legal and financial support for the high-level SEA. In this paper, the developmental processes and the procedures of SEA in Shandong Province are first presented, followed by an analysis of the five SEA cases, including an identification of the problems in the indicators, methodologies and procedures of SEA. This is followed by recommendations to improve the SEA system, including how to further the implementation of SEA in Shandong Province.

As a decision-making support tool, SEA can comprehensively integrate the consideration of environmental and ecological protection into policy-makers deliberations on new proposed PPPs so as to avoid, mitigate and compensate environmental impacts of PPPs and to protect and improve the environmental quality at a high-level. Five SEA cases were implemented by SEPB and Shandong University, which were carried out after the implementation or legislation of policies and plans. According to our study, these case studies will contribute a lot to the following: • capture and assess the environmental impact caused by implemented policies or plans; • predicting and assessing the potential environmental impact of the newly-legislated policies or plans; • provide avoidance, management and compensation measures needed for the impacts; • accumulate valuable practical experiences for the further implementation of SEA case-studies in Shandong Province and other regions of China; and • inform the government so as to improve or modify the newly-legislated policies or plans, as well as the drafting of new policies by incorporating consideration of environmental and ecological consequences into government deliberations on new proposed policies. However, some environmental impacts caused by implemented policies and plans could not be restorable and compensated for such as unreasonable consumed natural resources and unrestricted released pollutants and GHGs. The advantages of SEA have not been brought into full play in these cases. SEA should be integrated by policy-maker into the early stage of the legislation of new PPPs, by which it can predict the potential environmental impact and propose the countermeasures needed for the impacts, so as to coordinate the socio-economic development while protecting the environment and ecosystems. It has been learned from the SEA case studies in Shandong Province, that more work is needed for improving the legal and financial support and public participation, so as to promote the further successful carrying out of SEA not only in Shandong Province but also in other regions of China.