ABSTRACT
On a continent where the livelihoods of the majority of Africans are closely
linked to the health of the natural environment, and where poverty and land
degradation has increased in recent decades, there is a critical need for
sustainable management of the resource base and the ecosystem services that
this provides. Most southern African countries already have environmental
assessment and management policies and legislation in place and specific
provision for strategic environmental assessment (SEA) exists in a number of
them. Despite these trends, however, the opportunities that SEA can offer to
facilitate sustainable development are not being realized.
