Incorporating Sustainable Development Objectives into Development Plans

Abstract

Efforts aimed atdelivering sustainable development and promoting nature conservation in the planning and decision-making system in Malaysia has begun since the late 1970s. The growing importance of the preservation and protection of the environment against degradation have been highlighted in the Five year Plans since 1980s. Over the same period, a series of strategies for sustainability, entitled Conservation Strategies, was also being prepared in Malaysia, culminating in a National Conservation Strategy (NCS) in 1993. These strategies for sustainability were aimed at providing the framework for sustainable development. The general consensus is that prevention is better than remedial action. Potential impacts must be addressed at the planning stage before development decisions are made.

Impact assessment is seen as a tool for preventive action in the quest for sustainable development. Although environment impacts assessment (EIA) was made mandatory for a lisst of prescribed activities since 1987, environmental degradation continued . This paper gives brief introduction to strategic environmental assessment (SEA) and tries to demonstrate how SEA can bridge the gaps and counteracts the limimtations of EIA and more effectively integrate the sustainable development objectives into the development plan system.