The Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) is the theme of the two workshops that the Regional Directorate for the Environment will organize on the Islands of São Miguel and of Faial in July.

These workshops, to be held in Ponta Delgada (July 13 and 14) and in Horta (July 27 and 28), are addressed at the general public, but especially at the governmental entities, local administration and consultancy companies.

The workshops will be lead by Professor Maria do Rosário Partidário, from the Instituto Superior Técnico of the Technical University of Lisbon, who is an internationally recognised expert in this area.

The Regional Directorate for the Environment justifies the promotion of these two activities “for being aware of the possible misunderstanding between the application of the SEA and of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). The environmental assessment of the plans and programmes should not be a mere administrative procedure, but a tool for strategic planning.”

Furthermore, the Regional Directorate expects that these initiatives will promote the debate on the application of the SEA to the Regional plans and programmes, with special emphasis on its application to the Municipal Master Plans, which have been mandatory since the publication of the Decree-Law no. 316/2007, of September 19, with the changes introduced by the Decree-Law no. 46/2009, of January 20, thus conveying the actual usefulness of the SEA as a toll for spatial planning.

Those who wish to attend these workshops should register until June 30.