An Introduction to the NGO Perspective by Michael Ewing Public Participation An Introduction to the NGO Perspective by Michael Ewing

The Three Legged Convention 19/08/2019 European ECO Forum

The bread has to be good, but the filling is what makes it a sandwich ! 19/08/2019 European ECO Forum

Public Participation in Environmental Decision-Making Who are the Public? What is Participation? What is Environmental Decision-Making? What are the Tools we can use? 19/08/2019 European ECO Forum

A common understanding of the meaning of Public Participation 19/08/2019 European ECO Forum

What is Participation? Public participation, means different things to different people. The level at which the public is involved varies with the relevant legislation, and the attitudes of the other stakeholders. Simply stated, to participate is to take part, to share and act together. Participation is an essential part of developing a sustainable future 19/08/2019 European ECO Forum

DAD or DEAD Studies indicate a serious gap in understanding and trust between stakeholders Existing decision-making structures are often based on either the traditional DAD (Decide, Announce and Defend) or DEAD (Decide, Educate, Announce and Defend) methods, and this can be seen as one source of this gap in trust. 19/08/2019 European ECO Forum

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Degrees of Citizen Power Arnstein’s Ladder Increasing Public Power 8 Citizen Control 7 Delegated Power 6 Partnership 5 Placation 4 Consultation 3 Informing 2 Therapy 1 Manipulation Degrees of Citizen Power Degrees of Tokenism Non-Participation. 19/08/2019 European ECO Forum

An Assessment of the Implementation of Articles 6,7 & 8 Law – Evaluate the national legislative frameworks Effort – Assess the government’s actions to provide public participation, including the implementation of laws Effectiveness – Assess if laws and government efforts resulted in effective practice 19/08/2019 European ECO Forum

Apply Values Very Good Good Intermediate Poor Very Bad Justify with examples and explanation Examples of good and bad practice 19/08/2019 European ECO Forum

Initial Findings Responses from across the region 13 Parties 3 Signatories Follow up interviews Ongoing research Reporting in Sept Thanks to the respondents so far 19/08/2019 European ECO Forum

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19/08/2019 European ECO Forum

19/08/2019 European ECO Forum

19/08/2019 European ECO Forum

Public Participation Practice Wealth of expertise Wide range of methods Great lack of capacity Lack of understanding Cynicism Clash between representative and participatory democracy 19/08/2019 European ECO Forum

Thank You Go raibh maith agat 19/08/2019 European ECO Forum