Biodiversity Trends Associated with SEA and EIA Practices

Abstract

This chapter compares trends in policies on land uses and economic activity to trends in ecosystem services and biodiversity in cultivated areas as well as in protected areas, using a database defined in Chapter 6. The analysis revealed associations between capacity, priority, and process variables on one hand, and impact variables on the other. For the TESS project, the most important analyses involved the number of EIAs and SEAs. There were relatively more of these in countries where local administrations consulted most with NGOs, were responsible for relatively small populations and perceived nature most positively. Except for consultation, the processes used when conducting assessments and monitoring their results did not positively affect the number of assessments, the environmental and social impacts investigated, or the numbers of those using the resources. Additional analysis indicated interesting relationships with conversion to artificial land-cover, positivity to nature indices, knowing the term “biodiversity,” species conservation status, consultation at local level with NGOs, and the proportion of a country’s population that was hunters or anglers.