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Colombia

Legislation at strategic level

In Colombia, environmental assessment legislation is regulated by Decree 1076 of 2015, describing the procedure for the elaboration of an EIA in order to obtain an environmental license prior to the implementation of projects, works and activities. Several manuals exist to support the process. For policies, plans and programs, an SEA can be developed, but this is not required by law. So far about 20 SEAs have been developed in Colombia on a voluntary basis. The Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development is the entity that oversees all EIA and SEA developments.

Overview SEA procedure

There are seven phases i) Establishing the Strategic Environmental Framework, (ii) Scope of the SEA, (iii) Model of Environmental Assessment, (iv) Analysis and Environmental Diagnostic, (v) Environmental assessment of options, (vi) Prevention and monitoring and (vii) Elaboration and consultation on final documents.

Guía práctica para formular evaluaciones ambientales estratégicas en Colombia, 2008, Herrera R.J., Bonilla Madriñan M., Bogotá

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SEA implementation


Alternatives
At the strategic level the evaluation of the alternatives consists of:

  • Evaluation of consistency of alternatives with environmental objectives of the plan;
  • Identification of environmental criteria for the next phase of prevention and follow-up.
Guía práctica para formular evaluaciones ambientales estratégicas en Colombia, 2008, Herrera R.J., Bonilla Madriñan M., Bogotá


Content of SEA report
An SEA report should consist of the following elements:

  • Planning of the process
  • Analysis of the institutional framework
  • Stakeholders analysis
  • Identification of the institutional, territorial and environmental effects
  • Environmental objectives of the policy, plan or program and sectoral planning
  • The environmental diagnosis of the plan
  • Results of environmental assessment of the alternatives of the plan
  • Direct environmental management instruments
  • Strategic environmental dimension of the plan
  • Recommendations of the SEA to the process of elaboration of the plan
  • Consulted agencies
  • Sources
  • Monitoring plan
  • Summary

Guía práctica para formular evaluaciones ambientales estratégicas en Colombia, 2008, Herrera R.J., Bonilla Madriñan M., Bogotá

Informing decision-making


SEA and planning decision-making

The SEA is seen as an instrument of support for the incorporation of the environmental dimension into strategic decision-making. The SEA is prepared together with the preparation of the policy, plan or programme. The Ministery of Environment and Sustainable Development assists the responsible sectoral entities who have to formulate or implement the SEA, with the preparation of Terms of Reference, review of scoping and diagnostic documents, and progress in the formulation of the SEA, as well as discussion workshops with relevant stakeholders. At the same time, the Ministry itself also develops some SEAs in pilot sectors, to make progress in the conceptual and procedural aspects of SEA.

Proceed to legislation at project level
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