Integration of Strategic Environmental Assessment and Environmental Social Impact Assessment into Strategic Territorial Planning: Lessons Learned from Two Cases of Tourism Destinations In Protected Areas

Abstract

Whereas standard strategic environmental assessment (SEA) methodology aims to assess the impacts of certain activities solely on environmental quality, new tendencies in spatial and environmental planning are directed toward the application of environmental social impact assessment (ESIA). Having a wider scope, ESIA also implies assessing the impacts on quality of life as well as on natural and cultural heritage. Case studies in Serbia are used to explore whether the combined application of SEA and ESIA methodology in strategic territorial planning helps control negative effects of tourism, namely in protected areas (PA). The results/fi ndings of the analysed case studies prove that combined implementation of SEA with ESIA methodology in spatial planning helps to overcome confl icts between tourism development and protection of natural and cultural heritage, and quality of life. Also, the analysed case studies (tourism destinations in PA such as Djerdap National Park and Stara planina Nature Park) show that the application of combined SEA and ESIA contributes to better understanding of the specifi c problems related to sustainable territorial development, and provides support to the planning options and solutions aimed at addressing these problems in a more ecologically and socially justifi able manner. Findings implicate that SEA and ESIA have proved to be instruments for indirect coordination between spatial and tourism planning for achieving sustainable territorial development of tourism destinations in PA.Keywords: sustainable territorial development, strategic planning, spatial planning, sectoral (tourism) planning, strategic environmental assessment, environmental social impact assessment, tourism destination in protected areas *e-mail: marina@iaus.ac.rs DOI: 10.15244/pjoes/61851 1354 Nenkovic-Riznic M., et al.

Social impacts of European Protected Areas and policy recommendations

“…From the publications we reviewed, 32 % mentioned this impact with half of them highlighting benefits and the rest referring to negative issues. In terms of positive changes, new regulations have assisted in controlling illegal fishing ( Hogg et al, 2019 ), protecting territorial rights ( Hogg et al, 2019 ) while improving and regulating accessibility of different social groups ( Nenkovic-Riznic et al, 2016 ). Furthermore, PAs have placed in a more regulatory context the access to certain resources such as collection of firewood, wildfood, and medicinal herbs ( Sekulić et al, 2017a , b ; Štefan et al, 2016 ; Veenvliet et al, 2018 ).…”

Land Cover Changes in Natura 2000 Areas Located in Suburban Zones: Planning Problems in the Context of Environmental Protection

“…Another common problem is failure to make a detailed analysis of the phenomena and trends in spatial transformations in a particular area before making spatial planning decisions. The chance for effective actions could be increased by setting the trend and dynamics of transformations, identifying the factors causing changes and implementing adequate methods aiding spatial planning decisions [30][31]. Preliminary analyses should be made before decisions.…”

Retrospective of and prospects for the development and strategic planning of tourism in the mountain regions of Serbia

“…The elements of the contemporary holistic and problem approaches to MTD planning have been introduced under the influence of the European experiences, particularly the experiences of the Alpine countries (Milijić, 2005;Maksin et al, 2011;Dabić et al, 2009;Milijić, 2016).The Spatial Plan of the Republic of Serbia (1996) was the first strategic document to establish sustainable territorial development and to introduce the concept of the sustainable spatial development of tourism in the entire territory of Serbia. The tourism regions/destinations identified in the national spatial plan (1996,2010) are predominantly situated in the mountain regions of Serbia south of the river Danube.…”

“…Without prior verification and without achieving spatial, environmental, social and economic sustainability, concepts and solutions based exclusively on the sector (economic) approach in tourism development master plans jeopardize the planning concepts and solutions based on the holistic approach in SPSPAs (Dabić et al, 2009;Maksin et al, 2011). Although SEA is not being applied to master plans in the tourism sector for the time being, its application in SPSPA has contributed to achieving a certain balance between the sectoral and holistic approaches to development and protection, with a view to achieving the sustainable territorial development of MTDs (Nenković-Riznić et al, 2016).…”