Strategic environmental assessment

Strategic environmental assessment (SEA) is a procedure aimed at identifying and assessing the impacts of a plan in order to ensure that the principles of sustainable development, integrity and prevention are implemented. In accordance with the Law on protection of the environment (ZVO-2), SEA must also be carried out for plans in the field of forestry.

In the frame of revision of regional forest management (GGN GGO 2021–2030) and game management plans (LUN LUO 2021–2030), SEA was carried out, namely one for all 14 GGN GGO 2021–2030 and one for 15 LUN LUO 2021–2030.

SEA procedure started with the scoping, in the context of which decisions on the issues that were to be assessed in the latter stages of the SEA were determined together with competent ministry and the opinion makers. For each set of plans, an environmental report including appropriate assessment was drafted, in which the important impacts of the implementation of both sets of plans on the environment, nature conservation, protection of human health and cultural heritage were defined, described and assessed.

The defined mitigation measures were integrated into the draft plans. SEA is a long-term and complex procedure, which significantly prolongs the period of adaptation of plans. However, it gives more weight to the plans due to the in-depth assessment by opinion makers and assessors. In addition, SEA improves the inclusion of forestry and game management planning in the environmental policy of Slovenia, which gives both sectors greater validity.