Comparative Study of Public Participation in Strategic Environmental Impact Assessment between China and Foreign Countries

2019 ◽  
Vol 09 (06) ◽  
pp. 848-852
Author(s):  
瑞红 宋
2014 ◽  
Vol 70 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Maisarah Makmor ◽  
Zulhabri Ismail

The Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) has become an essential tool in promoting sustainable development and environmental protection since it was formally introduced by National Environmental Policy (NEPA) in 1969. The acceptance and application of EIA as a key tool in ensuring green development was overwhelming and has reflected positive feedbacks since its first introduction to the world community. The implementation of the EIA in various countries differs from one another as each country customised their own EIA process to cater their local development. This paper highlights the essentials of Environmental Impact Assessment and the EIA processes that have been adapted in four countries namely, Malaysia, West Australia, New Zealand and Canada. The three developed countries have been chosen because they share the same legal system as Malaysia which is the common law. The objective of this paper is to analyse the differences and the similarities between the EIA processes in the four chosen countries. The analysis was carried out by utilising a comparative study which was achieved via literature review. The comparative study reveals the similarities and differences of each EIA process implemented in the four countries. Conclusively, the four countries possessed few similarities such as each country has their own legal instrument, a governing body responsible in administering their local EIA process and incorporates public participation in the EIA process. However, the Canadian EIA process has a more notable EIA process between the four EIA processes, whereby, it possesses the most elaborate process which involves public participation at every level and takes up to 365 days for the EIA assessment.  


Author(s):  
T Murombo

One of the key strategies for achieving sustainable development is the use of the process of evaluating the potential environmental impacts of development activities. The procedure of environmental impact assessment (EIA) implements the principle of integration which lies at the core of the concept of sustainable development by providing a process through which potential social, economic and environmental impacts of activities are scrutinised and planned for. Sustainable development may not be achieved without sustained and legally mandated efforts to ensure that development planning is participatory. The processes of public participation play a crucial role in ensuring the integration of the socio-economic impacts of a project into the environmental decision-making processes. Public participation is not the only process, nor does the process always ensure the achievement of sustainable development. Nevertheless, decisions that engage the public have the propensity to lead to sustainable development. The public participation provisions in South Africa’s EIA regulations promulgated under the National Environmental Management Act 107 of 1998 show a disjuncture between the idea of public participation and the notion of sustainable development. The provisions do not create a framework for informed participation and leave a wide discretion to environmental assessment practitioners (EAPs) regarding the form which participation should assume. In order for environmental law, specifically EIA laws, to be effective as tools to promote sustainable development the laws must, among other things, provide for effective public participation. The judiciary must also aid in the process by giving content to the legal provisions on public participation in the EIA process.


2014 ◽  
Vol 16 (01) ◽  
pp. 1450002
Author(s):  
WAI MING TO ◽  
ANDY W. L. CHUNG

Web 2.0 has transformed the way people obtain, understand, analyse and respond to information from a broad range of sources. Users spend several hours a day to access the Web, browse their favourite sites and respond to invitations from friends and other people to participate in discussions that affect their social and business lives as well as their environmental conditions. In this regard, knowing how to promote public participation and engagement in the early stages of environmental impact assessment (EIA) as well as how to gain public acceptance in the consultation phase of an EIA using the Web is important. This study describes how Hong Kong government departments employ the Web to disseminate information and proposes methods for public engagement using Web 2.0 technologies.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document