Ga naar homepageBenin

Benin

In Benin the main focus of our work is on the application of Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA). Since a few years, Benin has approved legislation requiring the application of SEA to the development of Policies, Plans and Programmes. The NCEA supports our counterpart, the Agence Béninoise pour l’Environnement (ABE) and sectoral authorities in gaining experience with SEA.

The NCEA has worked in Benin and with the ABE since 2004. Our activities include independent reviews (including a review of an ESIA for a transboundary project on the border of Togo and Benin), capacity development and SEA coaching. Between 2021 and 2023 the NCEA coached the first SEA conducted in Benin, for the Lac Nokoué programme. In 2025, work on an SEA for Urban Development has started, for which the coaching of the NCEA has been requested.

News

Go to next slide
Go to previous slide
Other news

Highlight: NCEA Partner conference with 10 French-speaking African countries

Highlighted Projects

Lac Nokoue

The NCEA coached the steering committee on aspects related to SEA. for a strategic plan for the development and improvement of the...

Read more about Lac Nokoue.

Visit our Project Database for more projects in Benin.

All projects in Benin

Construction on the Port of Cotonou.

© NCEA - Stephen Teeuwen 2024

Open lightbox gallery

A village on the shore of Lac Nokoué

© NCEA - Stephen Teeuwen 2024

Open lightbox gallery

A fisherman on Lac Nokoué

© NCEA - Sibout Nooteboom 2024

Open lightbox gallery
+1

A village on Lac Noukoué

© NCEA 2024

Open lightbox gallery

Legislation in Benin

Benin was one of the first countries in the region with environmental codes that contained E(S)IA provisions. The decree of 2001 firstly defined the ESIA procedures and introduced SEA in the legislation. The Agence Béninoise pour l’Environnement (ABE), the current ESIA agency, had been established even earlier. A rather complete body of legal texts and manuals was in place, and ESIA (for private sector investments) became a widely accepted practice. Around 2010, however, the ESIA system was losing strength: funding for ABE decreased, while simultaneously political leadership seemed to have lost its attention for ESIA.

In May 2015, the Council of Ministers of Benin approved an updated Decree on Environmental Assessment. In 2017, a renewed decree on Environmental Assessment procedures was published.

Legislation at project level Legislation at strategic level