The integration of SEA and sustainability issues in EMS of small islands organizations: the case of tourism sector

Abstract

Sustainability is seen as mean of weakening the challenges faced by small islands. Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) and Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) are referenced as important tools to integrate sustainability and environmental issues into strategic and project level of the decision-making, respectively. Tiering between these instruments is a rather discussed subject, but there is often a forgotten link between SEA, EIA and Environmental Management Systems (EMS), established at organizational level. This research explores this forgotten link assessing the integration of sustainability issues along a decision-making hierarchy, from strategic to organizational level, regarding plans subjected to SEA process and organizations with implemented EMS. A qualitative and quantitative content analysis was used in a case study of the Azores archipelago tourism sector. The obtained results show that the integration of recommendations of higher level documents along the decision-making hierarchy remains insufficient, due to the lack of articulation between plans. The integration of SEA and EIA in all phases of the decision-making hierarchy could possibly contribute to a greater articulation between plans and disseminate sustainability concerns.