Environmental Sustainability, from Concept to Practice: An Opportunity for the Implementation of Strategic Environmental Assessment in Mexico

The adoption of sustainable development as objective represents a global issue for developing countries and international organizations. In this new context, ensuring that environmental considerations are integrated into the development planning is being promoted strongly, as well as approaches adapted to implement these strategic interventions that are complementary to the environmental impact assessment (ELA). This article advocates the adoption of the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) as a practical mechanism to make it operational environmental sustainability. It analyzes the current status of the development planning process and the EIA as a baseline for the proposed implementation of SEA in Mexico. Finally, the article proposes the reform of the General Law of Ecological Equilibrium and Environmental Protection to add the SEA as a tool of preventive environmental policy to assess the environmental impact of certain sectoral, regional, institutional and special programs referred in the Act Planning.