Improving the practice of public participation in environmental planning and decision-making in South Africa

Abstract

Despite calls for greater public parti­cipation in all aspects of environmen­tal planning, assessment and decision­making, opportunities for participation in the planning, legal and admini­strative systems governing these activi­ties are limited. Furthermore, there is little information and guidance on how this may be achieved in practice. The emphasis of this article is therefore, to suggest ways of making public participation operational. It begins by defining the concept of public partici­pation and explores how the principles and tasks of participation may be integrated into the environmental planning process. It proposes a public participation process which indicates when, how, why and to what extent the public should be involved in the activities of environmental planning and decision-making. Adoption of the principles of public participation, and the application of the process outlined in the article, should contribute to improving the practice of public par­ticipation.