Public Participation in the Resolution of Environmental Disputes. Peter Allen, Robens Institute, University of Surrey, UK GU2 5XH
This paper concerns the role of participation of the public in the processes of dispute resolution with respect to environmental issues. It provides an overview of the area and serves as an introduction to the other papers in this Symposium. Although most developed nations have well established official procedures for dealing with environmental and siting problems recent experience has demonstrated the apparent inadequacy of these procedures. Throughout Europe and the USA people have increasingly taken to protest over the whole range of environmentally sensitive issues. Those with responsibility for such decisions are frequently at a loss to know how to remedy this problem, even if they are aware of it. In response to the growing distrust of the institutional mechanisms of decision making there have been increasing attempts to devise methods to resolve disputes which, in one way or another, involve the public more directly in the decision process. Starting perhaps twenty years ago experience has been gained of alternative resolution procedures and the time may now be apposite for a review of the situation. This paper will provide a brief review of such methods and will categorize them in terms of their main apparent benefits and faults. Amongst the key issues which limit the usefulness of participation methods is the problem of representativeness and the paper will discuss the notion that representative measures of stakeholder values might constitute valid information used to inform the decision however it is made.
Work supported by EU under Contract ENV4-CT96-0270.