The plans establishment and management for protected areas are key strategies for biodiversity protection. The management plans are essential to achieving the goals for Environmental Protected Areas (EPA), one of the conservation areas types in Brazil. Some countries use Strategic Environmental Assessment to make management plans and they are getting good results. On the other hand, in Brazil, the management plans preparation applied in EPAs follows a specific Methodological Guide. In this context, the present paper analyzed the SEA contribution to management plans and discussed how these contributions can improve Methodological Guide of EPA in Brazil. The method used was qualitative and the conceptual framework obtained from international literature. Thus, the paper analyzed three case studies: two were related to protected areas with SEA influence and the third without influence of SEA. The results show SEA important contributions for plans management, namely: planning stages better integration, especially with land use plans; consider other management plans objectives; better integration and evaluation of strategies involving social, environmental and economic issues; participatory management strengthening. Also, considering Methodological Guide of EPA, the conclusion is that management plans can provide better results when associated with SEA.
Management plan; strategic environmental assessment; protected areas; International Union for Conservation of Nature category V; environmental protected area