公众参与在建设项目环境影响评价中的重要性

通过对公众参与建设项目环境影响评价进行简要分析,针对公众参与“环境影响评价”工作中存在的问题提出相应的对策与建议。进一步探索如何提高“环境影响评价”公众参与的有效性,由此阐述公众参与在建设项目环境影响评价中的重要性。     

规划环境影响评价中公众参与有效性的探讨

公众参与在规划环境影响评价中具有重要的意义。目前环境影响评价中公众参与中存在许多不足，严重影响了公众参与的有效性，在提高规划环境影响评价中公众参与制度的有效性、信息发布的有效性、参与对象的有效性、参与方法的有效性以及结论有效性等方面提出了建议。     

Social Learning Through Evaluation: A Case Study of Overcoming Constraints for Management of Dryland Salinity

Conventional approaches to evaluation of environmental programs have tended to limit themselves to restricted measures of program effectiveness. This paper shows how a social learning approach can be incorporated into evaluating public environmental programs. A social learning approach is particularly suited to complex environmental challenges which are inherently difficult to understand, predict, and manage, thus complicating the evaluation process. The paper presents an Australian case study of dryland salinity management where there are major knowledge barriers impeding conventional management techniques. The research presented in this paper focused on evaluating a public demonstration program to track its impact through its design, implementation, and monitoring phases. The paper shows that, by incorporating social learning principles and practices, program evaluation can promote collective action, critical reflection, and increased knowledge to underpin improved environmental management.     

Harmony Hurts: Participation and Silent Conflict at an Indonesian Fish Pond

Participatory environmental and resource management is premised on open communication to reach consensus. However, deliberate and open communication cannot adequately address silent conflict. This begs two questions. First, how is the existence of covert communication and silent conflict to be recognized and addressed? Second, how are the wider social relations and traditions that encompass communication and conflict to be described and explained? These questions revolve around communicative power. Communication of environmental knowledge is deeply embedded in social power structures, with direct implications for participatory resource planning and implementation. Ethnographic research conducted at a failed community-managed fish farming project in Southeast Sulawesi, Indonesia shows that a culture of harmony and respect for authority can silence environmental conflict in the hierarchical “community.” Three propositions are offered. First, communication amnesia and exclusion jeopardize participation. Second, cultures of harmony and silent conflict shape planning processes and outcomes. Third, the weak use manipulation and communication strategy to acquire a “voice” while preserving harmony. These propositions address five unresolved issues in participatory resource management: analysis of groups, contextuality, social relationships, nonparticipants, and informal communication. Power, tradition, and social networks affect the valuing of knowledge relative to the power of different individuals and institutions to communicate priorities, values, and needs. These factors are critical to the inclusion of both participants and nonparticipants.     

企业参与对CDM环境效力影响研究

扩大企业对CDM的参与是提高清洁发展机制减排效果的关键因素，但是随着参与的不断扩大，可能产生价格因素、小项目开发障碍、“普遍性”等阻碍因素，将影响企业对CDM参与性的继续扩大，对减排效果的提高造成负面影响。在对企业参与和CDM环境效力相互关系探讨的基础上，本文对如何继续扩大参与、加大减排提出了发展建议。     

Legitimacy of local REDD+ processes. A comparative analysis of pilot projects in Brazil and Tanzania

This paper compares the legitimacy of pilot projects in Kilosa and Kondoa districts of Tanzania and the Amazon region in Brazil. The analysis is both normative – i.e., based on external criteria – and sociological – i.e., based on local people’s perceptions. Results show that the quality of decision-making in terms of local participation, balanced representation, openness and sufficient information increases local acceptability of REDD+. The research also suggests that power asymmetries may undermine legitimacy if not dealt with. Finally, the paper reveals that legitimacy outcomes differ under various contexts, which calls for REDD+ processes to be flexible.     

Criteria for the Assessment of Sustainable Water Management

Pressure on the world’s water resources is increasing, restraining social and economic development in many countries, and threatening ecological values in others. In order to manage water resources in a more sustainable manner, new planning methodologies/processes for river basin management need to be developed. This study attempts to construct a set of useable normative criteria for the analysis and evaluation of such processes. The criteria were designed as a response to the lack of deductive approaches in the evaluation of methodologies and working procedures used in the context of river basin management, making it possible to highlight their potential for sustainable development. The criteria are based on the twin concepts of participation and integration. These concepts function as well-established dimensions of both sustainable development and sustainable river basin management, and they are of significant methodological relevance. A synthesis of the key aspects connected to the two concepts is undertaken, based on a broad literature review. Focus is laid on how in methodological terms, and in relation to regional water management, to achieve participation and integration in a decision-making or planning process. The criteria are concerned with how knowledge and values are integrated into the planning process and how commitment, legitimacy, or acceptance for the resulting plan is generated.     

Who's in and why? A typology of stakeholder analysis methods for natural resource management

Stakeholder analysis means many things to different people. Various methods and approaches have been developed in different fields for different purposes, leading to confusion over the concept and practice of stakeholder analysis. This paper asks how and why stakeholder analysis should be conducted for participatory natural resource management research. This is achieved by reviewing the development of stakeholder analysis in business management, development and natural resource management. The normative and instrumental theoretical basis for stakeholder analysis is discussed, and a stakeholder analysis typology is proposed. This consists of methods for: i) identifying stakeholders; ii) differentiating between and categorising stakeholders; and iii) investigating relationships between stakeholders. The range of methods that can be used to carry out each type of analysis is reviewed. These methods and approaches are then illustrated through a series of case studies funded through the Rural Economy and Land Use (RELU) programme. These case studies show the wide range of participatory and non-participatory methods that can be used, and discuss some of the challenges and limitations of existing methods for stakeholder analysis. The case studies also propose new tools and combinations of methods that can more effectively identify and categorise stakeholders and help understand their inter-relationships.     

Implementing the UNCCD: Participatory challenges

The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) emphasizes the need for public participation in land degradation assessment and rehabilitation. While participatory approaches are supported by a growing body of research and practice, meaningfully involving the people affected by land degradation is far from straightforward. This paper investigates the challenge of using the UNCCD as a guide to influence community participation in policy‐making and practice at national and local levels by analyzing experiences from three southern African countries. We show that the UNCCD represents a useful normative framework for addressing degradation problems, but that the participatory ethos is difficult to enact at the national level. Whilst there is increasing evidence that combining local and scientific knowledge using participatory mechanisms can deliver the benefits that the Convention strives to achieve, communication between researchers and practitioners, and those involved in implementing the UNCCD at the national level needs to be strengthened. Broad lessons and best practices in incorporating participatory practices into policy development are elucidated. Our case studies show that a range of mixed‐method, interdisciplinary approaches can enable policy‐makers and practitioners to meaningfully engage those who are affected by land degradation in its definition, assessment and rehabilitation.