Participatory environmental policy processes: experiences from North and South

This brief article summarizes a review that explored Deliberative and Inclusionary Processes (DIPs) taking place in 35 Northern and Southern countries, all centred around environmental policy processes. It outlines some key conclusions drawn, such as the importance of linking participatory events to wider policy networks and policy change, the problems of framing the debate and thus the exclusion of certain actors and the inevitable power relations which occur meaning that communication between actors is never ideal. The article also highlights other potential problems concerning DIPs. For example, DIPs might not be appropriate in the very early stages of a project when conflicts and differences in opinion should not be ignored for the sake of building a single consensus. A table has been drawn up giving brief description of 6 case studies of DIPs in environmental policy-making.