58 Facilitating factors Preconditions Political will Tiering Integration & Timing Legal provision Information provided Networking/ participation The effectiveness of SEA in Transport Planning Chapter 5 - Analysis of the possibility of SEA for transport planning in Indonesia This chapter analyzes the possibility of SEA for transport planning in Indonesia in terms of preconditions and facilitating factors of SEA implementation. Since Indonesia has no SEA experience and expertise for transport plans, it is useful to learn from experienced country (the UK) through identifying several preconditions and facilitating factors for the effectiveness of its SEA implementation. This learning process then will be combined with several opportunities and constraints for SEA implementation in Indonesia (discussed in chapter 3). The way and process of this analysis is in line with theoretical framework developed in chapter 2. 5.1 Learning Analysis of the UK’s SEA for Indonesia Context Based on the theoretical framework in chapter 2, the effectiveness of SEA depends on its preconditions and facilitating factors. These preconditions encompass crucial environmental assessment which has an effect on the planning. Meanwhile, facilitating factors that contribute to the effectiveness of SEA include the underlying legal provisions, the type of information provided and the use of networking (see figure 5.1). Figure 5.1 the Preconditions and Factors influencing the effectiveness of SEA in Transport Planning 59 Therefore, this part focuses more on identifying those preconditions and factors related to SEA for transport plans and programs in the UK. Then, those will be compared with current environmental assessment for transport plans in Indonesia, so that it can supposedly give lessons for enhancing environmental assessment at a more strategic level. 5.2 Necessary preconditions a. Political will As Hilden et al (2004) stated, the participation of politicians and other decision-makers from the very beginning is as important as the participation of the public. In other words, the political will to carry out an environmental assessment is important at a starting point. Moreover, political pressure such as from public may be sufficient to initiate an assessment if the politicians and responsible authorities are unwilling to carry out an environmental assessment. In the context of the UK transport appraisal, as shown by the evolution of transport appraisal in the UK in chapter 4, political will to use transport assessment has been hugely emerging not only from government awareness, but also from elected decision-makers and strong public pressure. Marked by the new Labor Government in 1997, the new government, along with the public force, quickly introduced the concept of integrated transport which declared that the trunk road review would seek long-term solutions and give more weight to environmental consideration while promoting sustainable economic development. This policy has been evolving until now, by introducing and using the New Approach to Appraisal (NATA)-integrated transport appraisal. Subsequently, the UK government through Department for Transport, in 2004, produced “Guidance on SEA for transport plans and programs”. This SEA guidance was produced as a respond to transpose SEA Directive’s requirements into the UK’s prevailing transport appraisal (NATA). This guidance assigned that all regional and local authorities must involve SEA process based on SEA Directive requirements into either Regional Transport Strategies or Local Transport Plans and must be submitted in 2006. Based on the UK’s experience above, it can be seen that the emerging political will to use environmental assessment for transport planning, in the UK, 60 come from elected-decision makers, administrative and public. Moreover, it can be understood that political will has an important role in triggering arrangement or change of the desired policies or approaches. As Hilden et al (2004) stated, without this involvement, the effects of SEA for transport sector on decision- making may be negligible. It means that political will must be presented or triggered, otherwise the assessment procedure and the link of the environmental assessment into decision-making process, which have been successfully arranged in appropriate manner along with a huge and transparent participation of all stakeholders, does not make sense. In Indonesia, political will to use environmental assessment at a strategic level has just emerged from the administrative (Ministry of Environment), while political will from elected-decision makers, politician and public is limited on environmental assessment at project level. The political will from administrative was marked by publishing booklet entitled “Strategic Environmental Assessment” in 2004 which described the need of and the procedure of SEA. At the same time, the Ministry of Environment also published booklet titled “Cumulative Impact Analysis” which concern on the limitations and failures of project EIAs dealing with analyzing cumulative and synergistic impact of project developments. This precondition is useful for starting point. Unfortunately, those initiatives and recognition for SEA implementation has not been arranged into statutory framework and not binding for relevant authorities. Besides, that initiative was too broad, not specifically address for sectoral approach such as transport plans. These are caused by lack of awareness and weak support from other parties such as elected-decision makers, politician and public force. So, Ministry of Environment should make efforts to gain the same attention and perspective from those actors through: oEncouraging the awareness of politicians, elected-decision makers and public oGiving information and education on strategic environmental issues for authorities and decision making as well as the public oInvolving relevant international organization to enforce SEA implementation 61 b. Integration and Timing According to Hilden et al (2004), integration, which establishes clear links between environmental assessment and the planning process, ensures that environmental considerations are taken into account. The integration of SEA into transport planning process could be: oThe integration of environmental assessments into planning process. oThe integration with respect to different kinds of assessments, e.g., integration of economic, social and ecological assessments. oIntegration can also be used to express links between different levels of planning. Furthermore, the timing of the integration between environmental assessment and planning process are temporally linked. It means environmental assessment data is available during the preparation of policy, plan and program. As shown in the UK’s case study, prior to issuing Guidance on SEA for Transport Plans and Programs, the UK government faced some challenges on how to fulfill the requirements of SEA into current transport plan. Those were because the existing transport appraisal, NATA/GOMMMS, more focuses on deriving quantitative data of infrastructure project rather than quantitative and qualitative for plans and programs, although the scope of the assessment has embraced all sustainable development objectives through analyzing five’s NATA objectives. To deal with the challenges above, government through Department for Transport in 2004 produced guidance on SEA for Transport Plans and Programs. With exploring guidance and case study in chapter 4, there are several aspects to be integrated into NATA or local transport planning process in fulfilling the requirement of SEA Directive. These aspects (the content of integration), which are important for Indonesia case, comprise: 1) Environmental considerations or objectives at an early stage Environmental considerations must be included at an early stage of the planning process. In the UK, the SEA work begins following development of the provisional LTP after the Local Authority uses the NATA to appraise a range of alternatives strategies and had a preferred option (see figure 4.3). As 62 a result, the SEA is limited in its scope for assessment of alternatives and the main focus is the identification of environmental effects, minimizing environmental effects (mitigation) and monitoring proposals. In order to gain whole environmental considerations, at scoping stage regional or local authorities must consult the plan to designated environmental authorities and other non-environmental agency in relation to level of detail to be included in the environmental report. 2)Environmental Report This report contains the outcomes of the SEA process (figure 2.2 served SEA process). Moreover, the purpose of this report is to document the assessment of policies and strategies that has been taken during the development of the new LTP. This report will form the basis for informing all interested stakeholders of the assessment process associated with the new LTP. In addition, in accordance with the statutory requirements the Environmental Report is made available for inspection by statutory consultees and public. The Environmental Report consultation is conducted both vertically among different relevant planning levels and horizontally among other environmental plans.