Public participation in environmental matters: Compendium, challenges and chances globally

Abstract

This paper aims to provide a global and comparative overview of Public Participation in Environmental Matters in the sense of the Aarhus convention. The method applied is an in-depth literature review in particular of research papers, legal documents, policy papers, which was implemented by means of electronic databases (Web of Science, Scopus) as well as by internet research using terms such as public participation, access to information, participation in decision-making and access to justice in combination with continent names. The results were then analysed according to the five continents. They were then divided as well as discussed regarding general aspects, access to information, access to decision-making and access to justice. The results for the five continents show regionally and nationally within the three pillars, access to information, participation in decision-making and access to justice large differences. While access to information is widely legally established within all regions on all continents, access to justice is the one sector of the three mentioned in Principle 10 of the Rio Declaration which has obtained the least reflection in legislation and implementation so far.