Contextual challenges for implementing strategic environmental assessment in the Global South: insights from a case study in Mexico

ABSTRACT

An increasing number of countries are implementing strategic environmental assessment (SEA) to support the development of environmentally sustainable policies, plans and programs. However, some Global South countries are yet to legislate for SEA and research is needed to understand the contextual challenges to implementing SEA effectively in these jurisdictions. Here, we examine Mexico’s first attempt at applying SEA to assess the potential impacts of urban development plans on a city-wide scale, including those on biodiversity and ecosystem services. Using stakeholder interviews and reflexive thematic analysis, we identify and discuss key factors to consider when formally implementing SEA in Mexico for it to achieve its intended objectives. We relate our findings to existing studies on SEA in Global South countries and discuss contextual challenges that may be shared by these jurisdictions, namely: limited knowledge and experience with SEA, low trust in public institutions, and limited institutional capacity of environmental agencies. We then provide recommendations for addressing these shared challenges, which may also prove useful for countries experiencing difficulties with the application of SEA.

KEYWORDS:

• Strategic environmental assessment
• environmental impact assessment
• Global South
• biodiversity conservation
• ecosystem services
• public participation

Acknowledgments

This research was conducted in Australia on the unceded lands of the people of the Woi wurrung and Boon wurrung language groups of the eastern Kulin Nations. We thank our interview participants for their time and contributions to our research. We also thank the two anonymous reviewers for their constructive feedback which greatly improved our manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/14615517.2022.2157111

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Australian Government’s National Environmental Science Program through the Threatened Species Recovery Hub and Clean Air and Urban Landscapes Hub. M.G. was supported by scholarships from RMIT University and the Mexican National Council of Science and Technology (CONACYT). C.H.S. was supported by a scholarship from RMIT University. A.G. and S.B. were supported by the Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Project DP150103122 and S.B. by ARC Discovery Project DP200103501.