Question

Discuss the objective of public participation in environmental decision making.

Answer 1

Public participation in environmental decision-making has become an indelible feature of many environmental regulatory systems worldwide over the past few decades. Individuals and organisations affected by development approvals, pollution licences, land use plans and other types of regulatory processes have increasingly demanded greater consultation, and more transparent and accountable decisions. This article considers historical perspectives, theoretical approaches and legal mechanisms for public participation.

6Public Participation in EnvironmentalDecision-makingBENJAMIN J. RICHARDSON* AND JONA RAZZAQUE**A. Introduction: The Importance of ParticipationPublic participation in environmental decision-making has become an indeliblefeature of many environmental regulatory systems world-wide over the past fewdecades. Individuals and organisations affected by development approvals, pollu-tion licences, land use plans and other types of regulatory processes have increas-ingly demanded greater consultation, and more transparent and accountabledecisions. Parliamentary democracy ratified through periodic electoral contests iswidely viewed as insufficient to provide meaningful public input into day-to-dayenvironmental decision-making. Governing elites’ hostility to independentprotest and community self-expression has encouraged the creation of ‘surrogatepolitical processes’,1wherein citizens’ views are channelled into and considered inalternate administrative and judicial structures.2In these structures, public participation assumes a variety of forms. It can occurthrough education, information dissemination, advisory or review boards, publicadvocacy, public hearings and submissions, and even litigation.3By these means,public participation may assist decision-makers to understand and identify pub-lic interest concerns while formulating environmental policies.4Greater citizen* Professor, Osgoode Hall Law School,York University.** Senior Lecturer, University of the West of England, and recently Staff Lawyer, Foundation forInternational Environmental Law and Development (FIELD).1RB Stewart, ‘The Reformation of American Administrative Law’ (1975) 88 Harvard L Rev 1660, 1712.2See generally C Offe, ‘New Social Movements: Challenging the Boundaries of InstitutionalPolitics’ (1985) 52 Social Research 817.3S Stec and S Casey-Lefkowitz, The Aarhus Convention: An Implementation Guide (UNECE, 2000)85. On definition of the ‘public’, see DN Zillman, ‘Introduction to Public Participation in the 21stCentury’ in D. Zillman et al, Human Rights in Natural Resource Development:Public Participation inthe Sustainable Development of Mining and Energy Resources (Oxford UP, 2002).4E Petkova, C Maurer, N Henninger and F Irwin, Closing the Gap: Information, Participation, andJustice in Decision-making for the Environment (World Resources Institute, 2002) 66–