Key note address at the Thai National Economic and Social Development Council (NESDC) cross sector conference on strategic environmental assessment, November 2020

1. Strategic Environmental
Assessment inThailand
Key note address – SEAs - a tool to promote
ecological sustainability and social equity
Thai National Economic and Social
Development Council (NESDC) cross sector
conference on strategic environmental
assessment
November 2020

2. Some issues of greatest concern toThai
development planners concerning SEA
1. Where in the planning process should SEAs fit – how do they integrate into the
sector and spatial planning?
2. What are the costs of SEA – do they slow down economic development?
(leading to resistance in every sector)
3. What should be the legal status of SEAs – should they be mandatory?
4. What is the best institutional arrangement for SEAs?
5. How much emphasis should be placed on stakeholder consultation in SEAs?
6. What happens to SEA reports – how do they influence decision making
system?
7. How do SEAs function in a data scarce environment?
The purpose of this presentation is to address those issues of concern

3. First – the backdrop to SEA application - Strategic
issues underminingThailand’s ecological sustainability
and happiness
The four overarching strategic challenges facing us are forces locked together –
they are interdependent –
1. The great shrinking of the natural world
2. Climate change
3. Negative environmental quality trends
4. Increasing zoonotic and other diseases
Those strategic concerns and trends are inextricably linked.
They shape and undermine economic development, livelihoods and quality of life

4. The loss of nature
• We are facing a great shrinking of the natural world on which all life depends. The loss
of its diversity. This is a development issue of the highest strategic importance.
• InThailand –
• A loss in insects diversity – insects as an indicator of nature system health,
• Loss of fish diversity
• Loss in crop wild relatives
• Loss of forest quality
• Reduced environmental quality (some air pollution parameters improving and others getting worse; water
quality unacceptable - wastewater treatment processes in the residential sector 18 per cent effective, while
only 52 per cent of wastewater was treated)
• Some nature system indicators may appear insignificant – but when multiplied we are
witnesses the homogenisation of life on Earth. Monoculture leading to instability
without high investments
• Diversity in natural systems is linked to stability in ecological, social and economic
systems.

5. International responses to those strategic
challenges
Biodiversity:
• 2019 Inter-governmental Platform for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services Global
Assessment
• 2020 UN Global Biodiversity Outlook 5 under the Biodiversity Convention
• 2010 Aichi goals to protect ecosystems - after a decade, all goals have been missed
Climate change:
• Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Reports
• 2015 Paris Agreement on addressing climate change - Paris climate goals are not being
met, amid record global heating
Sustainable development:
• 2015, the General Assembly adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development
that includes 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – few SDG targets have been
met.

6. UN decade on Ecosystem Restoration
Overriding international response:
• The situation is recognised by the UN -The United Nations General Assembly
has declared 2021–2030 the “UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration.”
A call to action - recognises the need to accelerate:
• global restoration of degraded ecosystems,
• adaptation and mitigation to the climate change,
• enhancing of food security,
• provision of clean water and support for the ecologically sustainability of
development, and
• protection of biodiversity.

7. SEA – a tool to promote ecological sustainability
and social equity
SEA is a strategic planning tool to promote
• ecological sustainability
• mitigation and resilience to climate change
• social equity and well being
• environmental quality
• sustainability in natural resource use
• But SEAs are not a magic bullet – to be effective they require a system wide
enabling environment in terms of supporting regulation, standards and
capacities
• They are most effective when applied with a strong spatial planning system

8. SEAs as a strategic planning tool inThailand
• SEAs are a strategic planning tool for promoting ecological restoration as an
essential ingredient in our national development and well being.
• SEA can help reverse the trends = to bring nature back across the development
landscape. No town or city or agricultural landscape is too modified and densely
development that can’t benefit from bringing elements of nature back.
• Any planning tool which can help enhance and help reset the course to
ecological sustainability needs to be applied in a systematic way across all arms
of government

9. 1. Integrating SEAs with sector and spatial
planning – an “environmental auditing” tool
• SEAs and spatial/sector planning are intimately linked
• Good spatial plans provide zones and a framework of sustainability safeguards
• Good sector development plans provide a framework of sustainability
safeguards
• SEAs act as an auditing tool - in an ideal world SEAs are a tool to ensure that
development is following the safeguards and standards for sustainability set out
in sector and spatial plans
• Otherwise SEAs will conflict with existing sector and area plans – and sectors will
ignore recommendations
• SEAs can progressively influence the shape and content of future sector and
area spatial plans – for some time SEAs will “stand in the shoes” of the sector
and spatial planners.

10. How do SEAs integrate into the sector and
spatial planning?
Some needed enabling reforms if SEAs are to work:
• Sector sustainability mandates:The mandates of sectors need to change – to
have sustainability embedded as the key driver in sector planning
• Sector and area wide sustainability criteria and goals: Each sector and spatial
planning agency needs to have performance criteria which drive sustainability as
the primary goal in development and spatial plans
• Sector green reporting and performance penalties: Each sector needs to submit
a green report to parliament/cabinet annually against its sustainability criteria
and goals – penalties such as budget reductions for poor performance. Sectors
that perform well should be rewarded.

11. 2.What are the costs of SEA – do they slow down
economic development?
• Past SEAs inThailand have been costly in terms of Baht (eg 32 million) and lasted 1-2
years – but still a small fraction of the development investments involved
• Fear of undermining sector agency mandates and goals – sectors hesitate to embrace
SEAs – “we are here to build roads, we are here to build energy facilities, we are here to
provide water”
• SEAs should save time and money as problematic options are disregarded early in
planning when only few resources have been spent on their development
• SEAs only slow down development if sectors have not done their job – ie are not
performing well against sustainability criteria
• We are asking the wrong question –the right question of the future is “do SEAs enhance
the quality of development”
• The way we assess sector performance needs to change – the indicators of success need
to shift from sector specific growth and expansion at all costs, to shared cross sector
goals of sustainability

12. 3.What should be the legal status of SEAs –
should they be mandatory?
• Yes they should be mandatory for the most “significant” plans (need criteria of significance)
• Start modest in terms of the mandatory requirement and include a sun set clause to review how
the system is working (eg after five years)
• A register of “significant” social, economic, environmental effects is needed as an up front filter
Examples of SEA systems:
• Vietnam– SEAs are mandatory but system bogged down through lack of enabling environment
• China – SEAs are mandatory and applied consistently – but are they having influence on
decisions?
• Australia – SEAs are voluntary – left to discretion of sector ministers – after initial enthusiasm
now SEAs are fading away
• Europe – SEAs are mandatory – system working well and influential – but Europe has a strong
policy and regulatory enabling environment

13. 4.What is the best institutional arrangement for
SEAs?
• Sectors need to lead the SEA system and process – they should create the enabling
environment for SEAs to be effective within their sector – eg establish a framework of
sustainability criteria, capacities and commitments
• Sectors to decide on how to implement SEA reports but must be accountable to (ie
report to) Parliament and Cabinet on how they have acted on SEA recommendations
• Integration across sectors and levels of government is the key to success:
• Promote collaboration across sectors to identify interdependencies and address cross-sector
issues (establish cross sector working groups and structures)
• Build partnerships and share information across sector agencies
• Sector agencies and staff should be rewarded for cross sector work – it should be in their
mandate and performance criteria
• SEAs should be collaborative work between national, provincial/municipal levels of government

14. 5. How much emphasis should be placed on
stakeholder consultation in SEAs?
• SEAs are strategic planning tools with broad spatial, temporal and substantive coverage
• It is not possible or desirable to attempt to involve all those with an interest
• It is best to be strategic in identifying “gate keepers” and representatives of interested
groups
• Avoid overdoing the consultative process – that can lead to governments and sector
leaders avoiding the use of SEAs in future – better fewer and deep rather than many and
shallow
• BUT ensure that relevant stakeholder groups are represented – and apply effective
participatory and communication methods with those stakeholders who are involved
• Make sure that stakeholders enjoy and understand the process and have a real influence
on the outcome
• The process should seek consensus and conciliation as far as feasible

15. 6.What happens to SEA reports – how do they
influence the decision making system?
• SEA teams must
• summarise key recommendations
• Set clear priorities for action and timing
• Identify lead responsibilities for action
• Set out the immediate next steps for implementation and institutional arrangements
• Cross sector working group chaired by initiating sector agency to define needed
actions in response to the SEA report – and to monitor actions by relevant
agencies
• Action on SEA to be monitored by central authority – eg NESDC and/or ONEP
• Initiating sector to report to Parliament and Cabinet on actions taken on an
annual basis – as part of their “green reporting”

16. SEAs in scarce data environments
• SEAs are initiated in situations of scarce, unreliable and inaccessible data
• That means development planners have not done their job
• SEA teams find they need to fill information gaps left by sector development planners –
ie they must:
• Define and assess alternatives and their sustainability implications
• Define and assess various development scenarios
• Conduct original research where the science evidence base is lacking
• Defining spatial zoning and linked safeguard frameworks
• In those situations SEAs take longer and cost more – they are standing in the shoes of
the development planners
• They are not just an auditing tool – they become an essential development planning
tool
• Information repositories: Underlying this situation is the need for government to
establish one stop shops to provide information already gathered by development
planners, SEA teams and through the EIA process – SEA team’s should not have to start
from scratch every time in gathering needed information.
• Web based GIS platforms and decision support systems are an important repositories
for each geographic region and province in the country

17. Thank you
Jeremy Carew-Reid