Following-up in strategic environmental assessment: a case study of 20-year forest management planning in Saskatchewan, Canada

Abstract

The concept of strategic environmental assessment (SEA) has received considerable attention in recent years; however, the focus has been on the pre-decision stages of policies, plans and programs with much less attention to post-decision follow-up and monitoring. In those instances where SEA follow-up has been addressed, it has been done so much more from a conceptual than a practical perspective. As a result, the principles and concept of SEA follow-up are moving forward but we know little of the practice itself. This paper explores the practice and utility of SEA follow-up for twenty-year forest management planning and assessment in Saskatchewan, Canada. To do this, we develop and implement an analytical framework consisting of the necessary strategic, design and procedural, and institutional principles to enable ‘good’ SEA follow-up. The overall objective is to identify opportunities to learn from experience and to help advance SEA follow-up from concept to practice.

Keywords:

• strategic environmental assessment follow-up
• Saskatchewan
• Pasquia-Porcupine Forest Management Plan
• strategy implementation
• monitoring