Montenegro: Strategic Environmental Assessment on the National Spatial Plan

A growing number of countries at all levels of development have legislation or regulations prescribing the application of Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) - and many more are introducing it as part of their policy tools. This is creating unique opportunities for better policy making and planning by incorporating environmental considerations into high-level decision-making and opening new mechanisms to build consensus on development priorities within governments themselves and between governments and societies.

The first SEA pilot generated a lot of interest, and showed good receptiveness to SEA in Montenegro, but also demonstrated that there is limited SEA expertise available within the country. The SEA pilot provided useful practical illustrations of what an SEA can contribute. Perhaps most importantly, this case study shows how a successful SEA process can provide a better understanding of the cumulative impacts of a series of smaller projects, thus preventing costly mistakes as well as providing better insight in the trade-offs between environmental, economic and social issues.