Search

Corporate environmental protection investment (EPI) is one of the ways to accelerate green development. This paper develops a theoretical model of EPI focusing on three factors: the government, the public, and the enterprises. It uses data from A-share listed Chinese companies from 2008 to 2014 to analyse the effects of the government environmental policy and public participation on the corporate EPI. Results of this research show that both the environmental regulations issued by the government and the demands put forward by public opinion encourage enterprises to increase investment in environmental protection. Moreover, the government's green policy efforts and public participation result in synergy in governance. Relevant regulations issued by the government improve the efficiency of actual public participation. However, redundant government intervention is not conducive to increasing corporate investment in environmental protection. According to this research, market-oriented reforms can boost the positive impact of government and public efforts on corporate EPI. In order to improve environmental governance and achieve green development, it is necessary to deepen market-oriented reforms and build a coordinated, complementary, and incentive-compatible governance system that deals with issues, demands, rights, and responsibilities of the government, the public, and enterprises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental impact assessment (EIA) is a policy process that can lead to more sustainable development by preventing or mitigating the negative impacts of development projects. Public participation in the EIA process, especially one based on the ideals of deliberative democracy, is essential to deliver on the goal of sustainable development that is arguably the primary objective of EIA. This article specifically focuses on a study of public participation in the EIA process of the Maldives. Using a qualitative research design involving an analysis of documents and interviews, it investigates four aspects of a deliberative participatory process: fairness, competence, willingness and capacity. The analysis suggests that the process for public participation in the Maldives cannot be characterized as fully fair or competent. It further identifies several socio-economic barriers that affect the capacity and willingness of the actors to participate including political influence, lack of human and financial capacity, gender gap, loss of community spirit and lack of environmental and procedural awareness. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Governments can use three ways to maintain biodiversity: spatial planning, planning of processes (management) and communication. Good communication between scientists, planners, managers and users of urban green areas may be essential to achieve success in maintaining urban biodiversity. In this case study, we have tried to find answers to the question of whether public participation fosters biodiversity by comparing a city in The Netherlands (The Hague), where citizens can participate in decision-making processes, with its twin city in Poland (Warsaw), where the authorities traditionally have not involved its citizens in the planning and management of green areas. The policy plan for green areas in The Hague offers a framework for realizing a sustainable green infrastructure by means of planning, management and use of urban green space. The policy plan describes the status and management of the most important green areas: nature reserves and parks. In this city, it is easy for citizens to obtain information about the management of green areas, but this is very difficult in a city like Warsaw, where management plans are lacking. In Warsaw, much useful information is collected by biologists but only a very small part of the data is provided to, and can be obtained through, the offices of the districts' Department of Environmental Protection. In The Hague, fewer data about the presence of species are collected than in Warsaw, but most of this data can be obtained easily from the Service City Management. Several NGOs in The Hague regularly publish articles about the status of nature within their town and local environment. This stimulates people to observe species and to collect data. The number of volunteers who are active in collecting data on the status of species is still increasing. The collected data are passed to a databank or directly to the managers of the park concerned. The last option will often be consultative, which may lead to empowerment concerning park management. It appears that public participation in the management of green areas will foster recruitment of volunteers who can help to maintain urban biodiversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of natural justice comprises certain legal principles that, taken together, constitute procedural fairness in administrative decision-making. It is closely aligned to the notion of public participation, a key element of most environmental impact assessment (EIA) throughout the world. But is natural justice the same as public participation, and if not, what are the differences between them? We review a number of international EIA procedures and legal cases, and find that the concept of natural justice appears to be a 'grey area' of EIA which is not explicitly addressed in many jurisdictions. More advanced systems of impact assessment generally provide for a high level of public participation, thereby facilitating both transparency and accountability; however, this is not the same as natural justice. We conclude that while institutional arrangements for EIA may have a bearing on the nature and level of public participation that is appropriate, natural justice should never be compromised, and EIA regimes should specifically address the need for natural justice when new information arises which may be significant in the decision-making process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental assessment (EA) is now institutionalized in over 100 countries but is widely criticized by practitioners and analysts for failing to convince decision-makers. Environmental sustainability is still not placed high on the list of criteria influencing project and programme approvals. This paper suggests that the failure of EA reflects the politically contested domain of EA. A framework for the analysis of public participation in EA based on the study of contentious politics is introduced. Public participation is a crucially important condition for influencing decision makers to pursue sustainability objectives, but the effectiveness of public participation is conditional upon characteristics of the coalitions created by diverse stakeholders. The importance of coalitions between local stakeholders and intellectuals is highlighted and exemplified through four cases in the Philippines, Brazil, South Africa and Taiwan where public participation in EA processes is associated with the blockage of large-scale development projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]