Should Strategic Environmental Assessment Law be Introduced in Thailand?

Abstract

Strategic environmental assessment is one of the legal instruments that served the assessment of environmental impact to protect harm arising from activities. Strategic environmental assessment is the process of evaluating environmental impact regarding proposed strategic, policy, plan or, layout plan, including assessment of a cumulative impact. Although strategic environmental assessment is introduced in Thailand for more than ten years, it would not have been implemented to proposed strategic, policy, plan, or layout plan because the strategic environmental assessment is not a law. This article, first, illustrates the advantage of implementing the strategic environmental assessment. Then, this article seeks to examine the limitations of lacking law enforcement of strategic environmental assessment. Lastly, it investigates the need and challenges of legislation strategic environmental assessment in Thailand.