Laos has not transposed its SEA requirements into national
legislation though it has conducted World Bank and Asian
Development Bank (ADB) supported SEA pilot projects (Goodland,
2005). A primary problem identified in SEA implementation
for Laos has been the lack of obvious direction for SEA
implementation in its policy and legislative framework. The
trends in SEA implementation may indicate that Laos is still
ambivalent on SEA since traditionally it has been driven by
donor funded SEA projects required as part of the investment
due diligence process. Meanwhile, notable progress of SEA
implementation in Laos has been the SEA implementation for
the Nam Theun II Hydropower Project. Other progress include
the SEA for the Nam Ngum River Basin which adopted a
cumulative impact assessment (CIA) to study the environmental
and social impacts of multiple hydropower development
on agriculture, natural resources and local communities