KEY RECENT EXPERIENCES IN THE APPLICATION OF SEA IN BRAZIL

One of the requirements for a good Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) is its capacity to adjust itself to the planned decision-making process. This paper presents recent experiences involving the application of SEA in Brazil in three different contexts. In the first case, an SEA was conducted to meet a request of the Ministry of Tourism for information to prepare theDevelopment Plan for Sustainable Tourism in the North Coast. The second case is an initiative undertaken by the Secretary of Environment of the State of Bahia for the construction of a seaport-industrial complex in the region of Ilhéus (Bahia). Finally, an SEA commissioned by a group of environmental NGOs to assess options for the development of a mining-metal and chemical-gas complex in the Pantanal Region near the Bolivian and Paraguayan border is presented. The paper highlights the differences in the contexts of the three studies (responsibilities in the decision-making process, stages of the planning process, etc.) as well as in their methodological approaches. Difficulties, gaps, advances and findings in each case are also analysed to assess the effectiveness of each SEA.