IMPACTO is the first company to have carried out a strategic environmental assessment (SEA) in Mozambique. This exercise was carried out in coordination with MICOA (now MTA), the environment ministry, as part of the implementation of the project for the strategic environmental assessment (SEA) of Mozambique’s coastal zone.

The report from the SEA is now a factor that will be helpful in targeting interventions in the coastal zone. Strategic environmental assessment is intended to take account of environmental policy in the broad planning guidelines (spatial plans, municipal master plans, detailed plans, development plans, etc.) that by their scale have a major influence on social, economic and environmental matters. It is at the planning stage that potential adverse or favorable environmental effects may be foreseen and mitigated, in the first case and reinforced in the second, since the SEA analyses the effects of the plans and programmes with respect to the population, human health, biodiversity, soil, water, atmosphere, climate, material goods, regional dynamic and cultural heritage, including architectural, archaeological and landscape heritage and the relationship among these.

In this way, the aim is to ensure consistency between the objectives of each of the Plans and Programs and the objectives of environmental protection. SEA is not yet regulated in Mozambique. Experience in SEA in Mozambique is scarce and IMPACTO conducted a SEA process for the coastal zone of Mozambique, as a result of a tender launched by the Ministry of Land and Environment, then designated the Ministry for the Coordination of Environmental Affairs.