پیاده سازی ارزیابی زیست محیطی استراتژیک در چین - بررسی پنج ساله و چشم انداز

Through literature review and questionnaire survey, the purpose of this study is to understand current status and major fields of SEA implementation in China, and then to provide advice for future improvement of SEA system, according to objective evaluation of the effectiveness of SEA implementation. Major types and fields of SEA implementation were firstly studied to conclude that the attitude of decision-makers and competent authority of SEA implementation does generate direct impacts on SEA implementation. Current status of SEA implementation were then studied, in terms of timing, techniques and methodologies, public participation, information disclosure, alternative, and review organization, to conclude that SEA implementation in China is “impact-based SEA” and the major problems of SEA implementation are resulted from deficient and defective management of SEA system, such as laws, regulations, and means of management. In order to have objective evaluation on the effectiveness of SEA implementation, to understand good practice of SEA implementation, and to provide advice for future improvement of SEA system, it is necessary to establish reasonable and feasible evaluation criteria for the effectiveness of SEA implementation, based upon foreign experience and political, legislative, administrative and cultural characteristics of China. Various types and stages of SEA should be carefully considered to be included into the evaluation criteria for the effectiveness of SEA implementation.

Strategic environmental assessment (SEA) was initially introduced into China in early 1990s. Now in China, SEA is mainly implemented at three significant decision-making levels, regional environmental impact assessment (REIA), plan environmental impact assessment (PEIA), and policy environmental impact assessment (Policy EIA), respectively. SEA implementation was greatly promoted as the “Law of the People's Republic of China on Environmental Impact Assessment” (the EIA Law) became effective in September 2003. As explicitly regulated in the EIA Law, PEIA is the legal requirement and shall be implemented for major economic development activities, integrated plans (such as land use, regional development, watershed development, and marine development), and special plans (for example, industry, agriculture, husbandry, forestry, energy, water conservancy, transportation, municipal construction, tourism and natural resources development). For the past five years, there are remarkable progress on SEA development, especially for PEIA, in many aspects, such as infrastructure construction, methodologies and techniques improvement, and practitioners training. In addition, abundant practical experience was gradually accumulated through many pilot studies and empirical cases. Nevertheless, there are many major and serious challenges to SEA implementation according to the perception of practitioners actively engaged in the planning and implementation of PEIA in China. Thus, the study is firstly to understand current status and major fields of SEA implementation in China through literature review and questionnaire survey. And secondly, reasonable advice for future improvement of SEA system is then provided according to objective evaluation of the effectiveness of SEA implementation.

All participants of this survey are from central and local competent authorities of environmental protection, environmental consulting agencies, university and colleges, and environmental research institutes, with many years of practical experience in studies, consulting and management on EIA. In addition, most participants have experience in studies, consulting and evaluation on PEIA. Therefore, the outcomes of this survey have comprehensively reflected the viewpoints and perspectives from experienced professionals on current status of SEA implementation in China, and shall exert guiding effects on future development of SEA in China, especially for institutional construction and studies on techniques and methods. The other purpose of this survey is to understand the effectiveness of SEA implementation in China. Nevertheless, due to the nature of professional background and expertise of all participants, there is a possible tendency that the effectiveness of SEA implementation in China has been optimistically evaluated and over-estimated. The major fields of SEA implementation are REIA, PEIA and policy EIA, to cover major economic development activities, such as land use, regional development, watershed development, marine development, and special plans for industry, agriculture, husbandry, forestry, energy, water conservancy, transportation, municipal construction, tourism and natural resources development. However, the developments of SEA implementation within these fields are quite different since the attitude of decision-makers and competent authority toward SEA has great and direct influence on SEA implementation. For current status of SEA implementation, the timing of SEA is late in comparing with plan compiling procedures, due to the system and the arrangement for PEIA in the EIA Law. In fact, SEA implementation in China is ‘impact-based SEA.’ Quantitative methods were frequently adopted for impact prediction to indicate that the main methods adopted for SEA implementation in China are technical and inferential schemes. Though, fulfilling the minimum legal requirements to implement public participation, there are lacks of substantial participation with high effectiveness. Disclosed information is not sufficient to meet the basic needs of public participation. Alternative research was mostly performed for special plans and less for integrated and directive macro plans. The argument between competent authority of environmental protection and other departments regarding the power to convene the review team for SEA reports resulted from ambiguous statement within the laws and regulations to hold back the development of SEA implementation. Generally, under current framework of SEA system in China, abundant empirical experience have been accumulated through the practice of case studies and technological and methodological researches. SEA implementation, especially for PEIA, has only fulfilled the objective to provide countermeasures and actions to prevent or mitigate adverse environmental impacts which is far from the primary objective stated in Article 1 of the EIA Law. The major issue to affect the effectiveness of SEA implementation in China is systematic infrastructure, such as legislation, administration, management and decision-making procedures. In order to objectively evaluate the effectiveness of SEA implementation and to guide SEA system for future improvement, appropriate SEA Performance Criteria should be established, by integrating practical experience from domestic and international, to include political, legislative, administrative, and policy characteristics of China.