Contextual issues in ensuring an added value of Strategic environmental assessment to tourism planning: the case of the Walloon Region Emmanuel d'Ieteren ( ) Marie-Françoise Godart ( ) Institute of Environmental Management and Physical Planning - IGEAT Free University of Brussels - ULB IAIA'05 – Prague – September 28th, 2005 SEA Theory and Research Session

E. d'Ieteren & MF Godart – IAIA'05 – Prague – SEA Theory and Research Session 2 Key messages – Focus  Focus on :  SEA institutionalisation and operationalisation in tourism sector in the Walloon Region, Belgium (WR)  Contextual issues :  wider context : political, cultural, institutional and administrative dimensions  immediate context : tourism planning and sector organisation  Potential added-values of SEA to tourism planning in the WR

E. d'Ieteren & MF Godart – IAIA'05 – Prague – SEA Theory and Research Session 3 Key messages – Observations  Analysis of current tourism planning processes in the WR :  economic dominated sectoral approach  weak integration / coordination with other tourism-related policies and actors > General lack of integration in tourism development, both between strategies and between actors > Causal link between the evolution of institutions and the evolution of environmental integration

E. d'Ieteren & MF Godart – IAIA'05 – Prague – SEA Theory and Research Session 4 Key messages – Theoretical perspective  Obvious integration issue in the WR addressed in light of different components of the integrative capacity of SEA : >Identifying potential contributions of SEA to tourism planning in the WR >Application of typology of integration : substantive  issues procedural  processes methodological  tools institutional  actors  Policy integration 

E. d'Ieteren & MF Godart – IAIA'05 – Prague – SEA Theory and Research Session 5 Potential contributions of SEA to tourism planning in the Walloon Region Substantive integration Integration of environmental and sustainability considerations Horizontal procedural integration Creation of synergies between tourism development policies and environmental and spatial policies Vertical procedural integration Establishing tiering mechanisms between policy levels More environmentally and spatially coherent tourism strategies at all levels (from regional to local) Methodological integration Horizontal and vertical harmonisation of SEA with other assessment approaches and tools used in tourism planning Institutional integration Setting up of communication and coordination mechanisms between different tourism-related stakeholders groups from the same level or different levels

E. d'Ieteren & MF Godart – IAIA'05 – Prague – SEA Theory and Research Session 6 Key messages – Conclusions  SEA as a decision-aiding tool fostering more environmentally integrated tourism planning  SEA as a transformative driving force of immediate and wider planning contexts  Integration typology as a useful approach : better understanding of SEA potential transformative capacity  Other contextual factors to assess in optimising SEA added-values, e.g. political will, capacity, level of opening to participation, effective integration mechanisms, learning processes…  Related fields of research, e.g. environmental governance for tourism, policy evaluation, organisational analysis…